iw! 


UC-NRLF 


B    3    IID    312 


t 


I!!    !i 


!i  i!„ 


I 

II 


inflninmnnnuimiimninninMi!! 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 


University  of  California.. 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  i8g4. 
^Accessions  No.  5~~^r^fy    Class  No. 


WORKS   OF 

PHILIP  LINDSLEY,  D.D, 


>^  OF  THB     *' 


D[LQ[?  [LDKIEgilglTp®,®, 


LIPPINCOTT  &  CO.  PHILADA 


THE 


WORKS 


PHILIP    LINDSLEY,  D.D, 

LATE   PRESIDENT   OF   THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   NASHVILLE. 


'•  From  his  cradle. 
He  was  a  scholar,  and  a  ripe  and  good  one." 


VOLUME  I. 
EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

J.    B.    LIPPINCOTT    &    CO. 

NASHVILLE :    W.  T.  BERRY    &   CO. 
1859. 


u^^' 


w^ 


r 
^tf-^-t 

Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congfress,  in  the  year  1859,  by 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT   &   CO., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Eastern 
District  of  Pennsylvania. 


!T2ESim 
PREFACE. 


Doctor  Lindsley  may  undoubtedly  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
leading  spirits  of  his  time,  especially  in  the  great  cause  of  edu- 
cation, to  -which  his  life  was  more  immediately  devoted.  His 
writings  were  mostly  Addresses  and  Occasional  Discourses,  a  con- 
siderable part  of  which  were  printed  in  his  lifetime,  and  some  of 
them  passed  through  several  editions.  Since  his  death  the  wish 
has  been  expressed  by  many  of  his  most  intelligent  friends,  re- 
presenting, it  is  believed,  the  general  voice  of  the  Public,  that 
not  only  the  productions  of  his  pen  already  printed,  but  others 
which  have  remained  till  this  time  in  manuscript,  should  be 
brought  forth  afresh,  or  for  the  first  time  through  the  medium  of 
the  press,  to  a  mission  of  honourable  usefulness.  The  author  pos- 
sessed, unquestionably,  one  of  the  most  philosophical  and  accom- 
plished minds  in  this  country;  and  it  would  have  been  unjust  not 
only  to  his  memory,  but  to  his  generation  and  to  posterity,  to 

(7) 


8  PREFACE. 

allow  such  memorials  of  his  greatness  and  goodness  to  perish. 
No  liberty  has  been  taken,  in  the  way  of  revision,  with  either  the 
printed  copies  or  the  manuscripts,  but  both  have  been  strictly 
followed,  even  to  the  punctuation.  A  second  volume  may  be  ex- 
pected to  follow  this,  within  a  moderate  period,  and  after  that,  a 
Memoir  of  the  venerable  author  by  one  of  his  friends. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  I. 


PAGE 

An  Address,  delivered  in  Nashville,  January  12,  1825,  at  the  Inauguration 
of  the  President  of  Cumberland  College 13 

The  Cause  of  Education  in  Tennessee :  an  Address,  delivered  to  the  Young 
Gentlemen  admitted  to  the  Degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts,  at  the  First  Com- 
mencement of  the  University  of  Nashville,  October  4,  1826 07 

Baccalaureate  Address,  pronounced  on  the  evening  of  the  Anniversary  Com- 
mencement of  the  University  of  Nashville,  October  3,  1827 119 

Baccalaureate  Address,  delivered  on  the  Fourth  Anniversary  Commence- 
ment of  the  University  of  Nashville,  October  7,  1829 155 

Baccalaureate  Address,  pronounced  on  the  Sixth  Anniversary  Commence- 
ment of  the  University  of  Nashville,  October  5,  1831 227 

Baccalaureate  Address,  pronounced  on  the  Seventh  Anniversary  Commence- 
ment of  the  University  of  Nashville,  October  3.  1832 277 

Baccalaureate  Address,  delivered  at  the  Ninth  Commencement  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Nashville,  October  1,  1834 .••••  307 

Speech  in  Behalf  of  the  University  of  Nashville,  delivered  on  the  day  of  the 
Anniversary  Commencement,  October  4,  1837 321 

A  Lecture  on  Popular  Education '*09 

Baccalaureate  Address,  delivered  on  the  Thirteenth  Anniversary  Commence- 
ment of  the  University  of  Nashville,  October  3,  1838 485 

Speech  about  Colleges,  delivered  in  Nashville  on  Commencement  Day,  Octo- 
ber 4,  1848 501 

Name  of  our  Republic:  "United  States  of  America,"  "Americans."  Shall 
we  adopt  a  new  name  ?  Being  part  of  an  Address  delivered  in  Nashville, 
on  Commencement  Day,  October  3,  1849 523 

Discourse  on  the  Life  and  Character  of  Professor  Gerard  Troost,  M.D., 
delivered  in  Nashville  on  Commencement  Day,  October  2,  1850 539 


(9) 


^^^^^^^^^^^ 


^^rTt 


^ 


■i 


%^ 


^^^  ^^^^^^       ^^<;;^^^^  ^.i^^^-a-r 


^ 


:/^' 


i^'zx:-^-? 


^^p>r^r2^^^      ^-^/^?--c> 


/i^ 


^<^' 


INAUGURATION 


PRESIDENT  OF  CUMBERLAND  COLLEGE. 


.i*i>?? 


INAUGURAL   ADDRESS, 

DELR'ERED  AT  NASHVILLE,  J.INUARY  12,  1825. 


On  the  subject  of  Education  much  has  been  said  and 
written.  Of  its  importance,  at  least,  to  a  certam  extent 
and  for  certain  purposes,  but  one  opinion  has  ever  pre- 
vailed. Even  among  savages,  and  the  ruder  classes  of 
civiUzed  men,  it  has  been  found  necessary  to  instruct 
children  in  the  few  imperfect  arts  and  branches  of  know- 
ledge with  which  the  parents  happened  to  be  acquainted, 
in  order  to  fit  them  for  the  mode  of  life  to  which  they 
were  destined.  No  animal  is  by  nature  so  destitute  and 
helpless  as  man.  He  is  emphatically  the  creature  of 
education.  As  a  general  rule,  it  may  be  affirmed  of  him, 
that  he  can  be  moulded  into  any  form  and  character,  and 
exalted  to  any  degree  of  intellectual  excellence,  by  suit- 
able instruction  and  discipline.  And,  ordinarily,  the  scale 
of  education  is  graduated  by  the  wisdom  and  intelligence 
of  those  who,  in  any  age  or  country,  superintend  and 
direct  the  seminaries  of  youth. 

Many  systems  of  education,  considerably  differing  from 
each  other  in  several  important  features,  have  been  pro- 
posed to  the  world ;  and  each  has  had  its  advocates  and 

admirers.    The  question  has  often  been  agitated,  whether 

13 


14  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

a  public  be  preferable  to  a  private  education?  .Much 
has  been  ^^lausibly  urged  in  behalf  of  each  mode.  The 
decision  of  mankind,  however,  has  been  pronounced  in 
favour  of  a  public  system.  Such  was  the  award  of  Quinc- 
tilian;  whose  treatise  on  the  subject  is  among  the  most 
ancient  which  have  escaped  the  ravages  of  time.  Of  the 
various  methods  of  communicating  instruction  in  public 
— in  schools  and  colleges — ^much  diversity  in  theory  and 
practice  still  obtains  :  and  perfect  uniformity  is,  perhaps, 
not  to  be  expected.  Partial  and  local,  physical  and 
moral,  political  and  religious  causes  may  occasion  and 
tend  to  perpetuate  this  variety.  Every  system  must  be 
adapted  to  the  genius,  character  and  circumstances  of 
the  society  for  which  it  is  designed.  In  most  cases,  how- 
ever, useful  hints  may  be  borrowed  from  every  source ; 
while  experience  and  talent  will  add  something  valuable 
to  any  existing  system. 

We  cannot  ascend  very  high  into  antiquity  for  Kght 
and  information  on  this  subject.  Moses,  the  earliest  and 
the  only  historian  of  the  origin  and  primeval  condition 
of  our  race,  has  recorded  only  a  few  striking  focts  and 
events  relative  to  a  period  of  more  than  twenty-five  hun- 
dred years.  These  facts  are,  however,  conclusive  as  to 
the  general  state  and  character  of  mankind  during  the 
primitive  ages.  They  indubitably  possessed  the  arts, 
knowledge,  skill  and  enterprise  of  civilized  life.  The 
venerable  father  of  the  human  family  was  their  first 
instructor.  Himself  created  in  the  full  maturity  and 
vigour  of  all  his  faculties,  moral,  intellectual  and  physi- 
cal ;   and  taught  immediately  by  his  Maker  everything 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  15 

necessary  for  him  to  know ;  and  living  through  a  period 
of  nearly  a  thousand  years ;  he  could  not  have  failed  to 
prove  an  able  instructer  to  his  posterity. 

How  much  of  literature,  science  and  the  arts  may 
have  been  possessed  by  the  antediluvian  world,  it  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  know^,  and  useless  to  conjecture.  That 
they  had  made  no  mean  attainments  is  evident  from  the 
Mosaic  narrative :  and  that  their  descendants,  who  sur- 
vived the  ruins  of  the  deluge,  had  not  lost  the  arts,  is 
manifest  from  the  sketch  of  their  first  exploits  as  given 
by  the  same  faithful  and  inspired  writer.  Noah,  indeed, 
remained  a  teacher  in  the  new  world  for  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years.  Within  which  period  many  of  the  cities 
of  Chaldea,  Assyria,  and  Phoenicia,  had  been  founded,  and 
were  fast  rising  to  that  height  of  power  and  splendour 
which  has  made  them  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  all 
succeeding  ages.  Eg3r[Dt  too,  which  has  ever  been  re- 
puted the  cradle  of  the  arts,  had  become  a  populous  and 
flourishing  kingdom,  at  least,  in  the  days  of  Abraham. 
From  the  creation  of  Adam,  therefore,  down  to  the  age 
of  the  great  Hebrew  patriarch,  we  behold  no  trace  of 
savage  life  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Nor  for  ages  after- 
wards, in  those  countries  which  were  first  settled  after 
the  deluge,  and  which  enjoyed  the  regular,  uninterrupted 
instructions  of  the  original  masters  and  of  their  succes- 
sors. Along  the  eastern  and  southern  shores  of  the  Medi- 
terranean— upon  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  the  Euphrates 
and  the  Nile — there  continued  to  exist,  for  many  gene- 
rations, the  proudest  monuments  of  human  art  and  in- 
dustry ;    and  many  of  them  exist  still,  upon  a  scale  of 


16  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

gigantic  grandeur  and  adamantine  strength,  which  look 
down  with  contempt  upon  the  puny  efforts  of  modern 
ingenuity  and  refinement. 

I  intend,  in  these  desultory  remarks,  to  institute  no 
comparison  between  the  ancients  and  the  moderns,  as  to 
the  amount,  utility,  or  excellence  of  their  respective  at- 
tainments. I  am  taking  a  rapid  glance  at  a  few  promi- 
nent facts  merely  in  reference  to  education.  Their 
bearing  on  the  subject  will  appear  presently. 

It  has  been  generally  supposed,  and  this  is  the  pre- 
vailing philosophy,  that  the  savage  was  the  primitive 
state  of  man :  and  that  he  has  been  slowly  advancing, 
from  age  to  age,  by  the  gradual  development  of  his  pow- 
ers, until  he  has,  at  length,  arrived  at  that  degree  of  re- 
finement which  now  characterizes  civilized  society.  This 
theory  is  contradicted  alike  by  reason,  by  revelation  and 
by  history.  I  hesitate  not  to  affirm,  that  the  world  can- 
not produce  an  instance  of  a  nation,  a  tribe,  a  family — or 
of  an  individual  who  has  ever  emerged  from  the  rude- 
ness of  savage  life  without  any  foreign  or  external  aid ; 
or  without  the  instruction  and  example  of  those  who 
were  already  civilized.  This  is  not  the  place  to  present 
the  argument,  or  to  attempt  the  induction  which  es- 
tablishes m}^  position.  All  the  phenomena  of  the  savage 
state  can  be  easily  explained — while,  had  this  been  the 
original  state  of  mankind,  his  subsequent  improvement 
could  never  have  been  accounted  for  consistently  with 
scripture  or  history.  Had  men  been  savages  at  the 
outset,  they  would  have  been  savages  to  this  day,  unless 
the  Deity  had  interposed  in  their  behalf      Man  is  prone 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  17 

to  degeneracy ;  and  when  sunk  to  the  lowest  state  of  de- 
gradation, he  remains  stationary,  until  light  from  abroad 
dispels  the  darkness  which  envelops  him.  The  history 
of  all  savage  tribes,  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  con- 
firms this  statement. 

The  cause  of  the  savage  state  has  ever  been  the  w^ant 
of  suitable  instruction.  When  colonies  removed  from  the 
fertile  jDlains  of  Shinar  to  inhospitable  climes — to  remote 
islands — to  dreary  fores.ts  or  barren  deserts — it  may  rea- 
dily be  imagined  that  in  many  instances  they  would  soon 
lose  all  knowledge  of  the  arts  which  they  left  behind 
them.  That  such  was  the  case  we  know  from  history. 
The  Greeks  were  once  comparatively  rude  and  barba- 
rous. If  we  admit  that  they  were  descended  from  the 
same  stock  with  the  Egyptians  and-  Phoenicians,  then,  we 
must  admit  that  they  had  greatly  degenerated.  And  they 
acknowledged  themselves  debtors  to  the  East  for  all  their 
science,  literature  and  arts.  Here  is  one  striking  instance 
of  early -degeneracy,  and  of  speedy  recovery  by  the  aid  of 
foreign  and  cultivated  nations. 

Such  has  ever  been  the  order.  We  can  trace  the 
stream  of  civilization  flowing  from  the  garden  of  Eden — 
through  the  antediluvian  world — following  the  little  com- 
pany that  issued  from  the  ark — fertilizing  the  plains  of 
Phoenicia  and  Egypt — at  length,  reaching  the  Grecian 
shores — and  hence  gradually  advancing  Westward  till 
barbarous  Pome  felt  its  transforming  power — then,  inter- 
rupted, for  a  season,  by  the  Northern  Scythians,  it  seemed 
to  linger  in  its  inarch  awhile  about  a  few  favoured  spots, 
until  in  time  it  spread  over  the  European  world — and  has 


18  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

finally  crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  nearly  reclaimed  from 
savage  cruelty  and  wretchedness  a  whole  continent. 

A  portion  of  instruction  must  be  communicated  in 
order  to  awaken  to  active  exertion  the  native  energies 
of  the  human  mind.  Some  elementary  principles  must 
be  acquired  from  others  before  any  individual  will  sub- 
ject himself  to  the  discipline  of  self-improvement.  It  is 
a  false  philosophy  which  takes  for  granted  that  man  is 
ever  disposed  to  better  his  condition  and  to  cultivate  his 
faculties.  He  must  first  be  supplied  with  a  stock  to 
commence  with.  The  amount  to  l3e  furnished  to  answer 
the  purpose  of  prompting  to  further  attainments  will 
vary  with  different  persons,  and  under  diverse  circum- 
stances. A  child  Avill  ne^er  learn  to  read  who  has  not 
been  taught  the  alphabet.  A  savage  never  dreams  of 
letters  at  all.  The  son  of  a  Bacon,  if  left  from  infancy 
to  himself,  would  grow  up  as  destitute  of  science  as  the 
child  of  a  Hottentot.  But  give  him  instruction  sufficient 
to  inspire  him  with  a  scientific  taste,  and  then,  if  he 
have  genius,  he  may,  by  his  own  efforts,  surpass  his 
parent. 

AVherever  education  declines,  there  human  nature 
proportionally  deteriorates.  Were  it  totally  neglected 
in  any  community,  not  many  years  would  elapse,  before 
the  people  would  become  as  absolutely  savage  as  the 
Indian  or  the  African.  Learning  cannot  be  inherited 
like  money  and  lands.  The  same  tedious,  painful  pro- 
cess must  be  repeated  with  every  new  generation.  An 
apprenticeship  must  be  served  in  order  to  acquire  even 
the  humblest  mechanical  arts — much  more  is  it  essential 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  19 

to  literary  and  scientific  attainments.     The  difficulty,  in 

the  most  advanced  stages  of  society,  is  to  keep  men  up 

to  the  standard  of  excellence  which  has  been  already 

reached. 

*  *  *  "  Facilis  descensus  Averni : 
Sed  revocare  gradum,  superasque  evadere  ad  auras, 
Hoc  opus,  hie  labor  est." 

The  great  cpiestion,  therefore,  is,  how  is  useful  know- 
ledge of  every  kind  to  be  retained  in  a  State — how  to  be 
communicated  or  transmitted  to  those  who  are  speedily 
to  occupy  our  places — how  to  be  advanced  and  extended 
in  the  most  effectual  and  beneficial  manner  ?  The  glory 
of  Eg3'pt  and  Western  Asia — of  Greece  and  Rome — has 
long  since  faded  away :  and  those  proud  luminaries  of 
science  are  forever  extinguished.  Whether  a  similar 
doom  awaits  the  literary  halls  and  academic  groves 
which  now  diffuse  the  cheering  beams  of  science  over 
the  Christian  world,  time  alone  can  determine.  We 
have  reason  to  think  not.  The  art  of  printing  has  ar- 
rested the  march  of  the  destroyer,  and  given  stability  to 
the  inventions,  discoveries  and  productions  of  genius. 
Still,  the  benefits  of  learning  are  but  partially  enjo3-ed. 
This  is  true  of  the  nations  of  Christendom  compared 
with  each  other — it  is  true  of  portions  of  the  same  king- 
dom, and  of  the  individuals  of  every  country,  compared 
with  one  another.  In  ancient  Egypt  and  Chaldea  the 
higher  sciences  were  monopolized  exclusively  by  the 
sacerdotal  order — while  the  body  of  the  people  were 
instructed  only  in  the  necessary  and  useful  arts.  When, 
therefore,  the  colleges  of  the  former  were  destroved,  and 


20  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

the  order  itself  abolished  by  the  Persians,  science  became 
extinct. 

In  Greece,  and  afterwards  in  Rome,  ©nly  a  small  num- 
ber of  the  citizens  ever  became  eminently  learned  :  but  a 
much  larger  proportion  of  knowledge  was  diffused  among 
the  people  than  is  generally  supposed.  The  popular  as- 
semblies, public  games,  national  and  religious  festivals, 
theatrical  entertainments,  shows,  pomps,  processions,  tri- 
umplis — which  drew  together  the  multitude  frequently 
during  the  year — were,  to  a  certain  extent,  schools  to 
discipline  and  invigorate  the  faculties — and  to  animate 
courage,  skill  and  ambition  to  daring  enterprise.  Be- 
sides, on  these  occasions,  it  was  customary  for  the  orator 
to  harangue — for  the  poet,  historian  and  philosopher  to 
read  their  respective  productions.  The  people  were  thus 
constituted  a  kind  of  literary  tribunal  to  pronounce  sen- 
tence upon  the  merits  of  their  scholars,  sages  and  poets. 
Hence  they  became  familiar,  in  a  degree,  with  all  the 
polite  learning  of  their  age  and  country;  and  were  distin- 
guished for  intelligence  and  refinement  of  taste.  Neither 
the  populace  of  London  nor  of  Paris  could  vie,  in  these 
respects,  with  that  of  Athens  or  of  Rome.  But  when 
these  means  of  general  instruction  ceased,  the  people  im- 
mediately lost  their  proud  pre-eminence,  and  sunk  to  a 
level  with  the  surrounding  barbarians.  From  that  period 
almost  to  the  present,  ignorance,  darkness  and  supersti- 
tion have  been  the  lot  and  inheritance  of  the  great  mass 
of  mankind,  even  in  those  countries  esteemed  the  most 
highly  favoured  and  enlightened.  The  Reformation  and 
the   art  of  printing   commenced    a   brighter   era :    and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  21 

learning  has  ever  since  been  becoming  more  and  more 
diffusive  among  the  people;  and  just  in  proportion  to  its 
progress  has  been  the  meUoration  of  their  character  and 
condition. 

Ignorance,  it  is  well  known,  is  the  parent  of  supersti- 
tion and  of  oppression.  It  has  been  the  policy,  therefore, 
of  every  tyrannical  government  and  ambitious  priesthood 
to  keep  the  people  profoundly  ignorant.  Such  a  people 
can  be  easily  imposed  on.  They  can  be  converted  into 
beasts  of  burden  at  the  pleasure  of  any  despotic  master. 
None  but  the  grossly  ignorant  can  be  retained  long  in 
bondage.  Let  the  light  of  science  and  of  the  Bible  shine 
upon  the  slave,  wherever  he  is  to  be  found  in  large  num- 
bers, and  he  will  rend  in  sunder  his  chains,  and  assume 
that  attitude  which  the  conscious  dignity  of  his  nature 
claims  as  an  inherent  indefeasible  right. 

During  the  darkest  ages  of  European  barbarism,  there 
were  always  some  men  of  extraordinary  learning  and 
accomplishments  —  enough  to  preserve  from  total  de- 
struction the  many  precious  monuments  of  ancient 
genius  which  we  still  possess,  and  which  are  still  our 
purest  guides  and  models  in  every  department  of  elegant 
literature  and  the  fine  arts.  They  kept  alive,  indeed,  the 
taper  of  science — though  it  burned  dimly,  and  in  a  corner, 
and  far  from  the  view  of  ordinary  and  vulgar  eyes.  They 
preserved  the  materials  for  future  use — the  seed  to  be 
afterwards  planted  in  a  congenial  and  fruitful  soil.  They 
were  the  secret  and  unconscious  guardians,  under  Provi- 
dence, of  the  rights,  liberties  and  happiness  of  all  future 
generations.     For  two  or  three  centuries  past,  the  world 


22  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

has  been  reajDing  the  benefits  of  their  vigilance  and  la- 
bours. To  form  some  idea  of  the  amount  actually  gained, 
look  at  Europe  in  the  days  of  Luther — ^look  at  Europe 
and  the  descendants  of  Europe  at  this  moment.  This 
mighty  revolution,  in  the  moral,  political  and  religious 
state  of  so  many  millions  of  our  race,  has  been  effected 
by  the  instrumentality  of  learning — ^by  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge  among  the  people. 

It  is  very  questionable  whether  the  existence  in  a 
community  of  a  small  number  of  learned  men  be,  on  the 
whole,  advantageous,  where  the  body  of  the  people  are 
doomed  to  absolute  ignorance.  The}'  then  constitute  a 
privileged  order — seek  their  own  aggrandizement — and 
control  the  destinies  of  the  State.  Some  such  men  have 
been,  and  still  are,  in  every  civiUzed  kingdom.  They 
may  be  found  at  the  court  of  the  Grand  Turk,  and  in 
the  most  despotic  empires  of  Asia.  They  are  essential  to 
the  political  machinery  of  their  masters.  But  from  the 
people,  science  is  as  efiectually  excluded,  as  if  it  were 
hermetically  sealed  up.  Upon  them  its  light  never 
flashes  except  to  blast  and  to  consume. 

A  free  government,  like  ours,  cannot  be  maintained 
except  by  an  enlightened  and  virtuous  people.  It  is  not 
enough  that  there  be  a  few  individuals  of  sufficient  in- 
formation to  manage  public  affairs.  To  the  people  our 
rulers  are  immediately  responsible  for  the  faithful  dis- 
charge of  their  official  duties.  But  if  the  people  be 
incapable  of  judging  correctly  of  their  conduct  and  mea- 
sures ;  what  security  can  they  have  for  their  liberties  a 
single  hour  ?     Knowledge  is  power,  by  whomsoever  pos- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  23 

scsi>e(l.  If  the  people  would  retain  in  their  own  hands 
that  power  which  the  Constitution  gives  them,  tliey  must 
acquire  that  knowledge  which  is  essential  to  its  safe 
keeping  and  rightful  exercise.  Otherwise,  they  will  soon 
be  at  the  mercy  of  the  unprincipled  aspiring  demagogue — 
who,  for  a  time,  may  court  and  flatter  them — but  who  will 
assuredly  seize  upon  the  first  favorable  crisis  to  bend 
their  necks  to  his  yoke  and  compel  them  to  hail  him  as 
their  lord  and  sovereign. 

Give  the  people  knowledge,  therefore,  and  you  give 
them  power.  Education  must  ever  be  the  grand  safe- 
guard of  our  liberties — the  palladium  of  our  political  in- 
stitutions— of  all  our  rights  and  j)i'ivileges.  In  every 
country  on  the  globe,  where  the  mass  of  the  people  are 
best  instructed,  will  be  found  the  most  liberty,  the  most 
virtue,  and  the  most  happiness.  Look  at  North  Britain, 
Switzerland,  Holland,  Sweden,  and  above  all,  at  these 
United  States.  And  just  in  proportion  to  the  want  of 
instruction  will  be  found  oppression,  j^overty,  vice  and 
wretchedness.  Look  at  L^eland,  Spain,  Portugal,  France, 
Russia,  Turkey,  with  the  whole  of  Asia  and  Africa. 
ILad  the  French  people,  at  the  period  of  their  revolution, 
been  as  enlightened  as  those  of  Scotland  or  America,  they 
had  never  been  the  sport  of  one  Catiline  or  Caesar  after 
another,  until  they  were  content  to  become  the  passive 
slaves  of  the  Bourbons  and  the  Holy  Alliance.  Nor 
would  every  other  struggle  for  political  emancipation,  in 
the  Old  World,  have  proved  equally  unsuccessful,  but  for 
the  same  cause.  What  will  be  the  issue  of  the  present 
contests   in  Greece    and    Spanish  America,  remains  to 


24  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

be  seen.  They  may  become  independent;  but  if  the 
people  be  destitute  of  suitable  information,  they  will 
not  establish  or  long  maintain  a  free  representative  go- 
vernment. 

It  is  the  proud  distinction  of  my  countr^Tiien,  that, 
when  their  fathers  adventured  upon  the  novel  and 
hazardous  enterprise  of  self-government  in  1776,  they 
well  understood  the  nature  of  the  object  at  which  they 
aimed,  and  steadily  pursued  that  object  without  once 
exposing  themselves  to  the  chance  of  being  flattered,  or 
surprised,  or  cheated  out  of  their  liberties.  They  con- 
tended for  the  rights  of  man,  and  for  their  own  heredi- 
tary and  constitutional  rights  as  Englishmen.  It  was 
not  the  shadowy  phantom  of  ill-defined  liberty — it  was 
not  the  magic  charm  of  a  icord,  which  could  be  made  to 
mean  anything  or  nothing,  at  the  pleasure  of  those  who 
employed  it,  that  urged  them  on  to  resistance  and  to 
victory.  Liberty,  equality,  independence,  the  rights  of 
man,  had  with  them  a  substantive  and  definite  import. 
They  were  not  the  mere  watchwords  of  cunning  and 
ambition,  of  crime  and  desperation,  bandied  about  from 
one  factious  upstart  to  another,  to  delude  an  ignorant 
degraded  populace.  Which  yet  might  have  been  the 
case,  had  our  people  been  as  sottish  as  the  infidel  rabble 
of  Paris,  or  the  priest-ridden  peasantry'  of  Spain.  Then, 
had  independence  been  achieved,  we  had  merely  trans- 
ferred our  allegiance  from  a  transatlantic  sovereign  to 
a  domestic  tyrant.  From  oppressed  colonists,  we  had 
become  heartless  trembling  helots.  And  instead  of 
daring  to  advocate  the  cause  of  truth  and  liberty  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  25 

science,  a  free  press  and  a  free  speaker  would,  at  this 
moment,  have  been  strangers  to  our  soil. 

No  greater  foe  to  his  country's  dearest  interests  can 
be  found  than  the  enemy  of  education.  AVere  it  the 
purpose  of  any  set  of  men  to  engross  all  the  power, 
honours  and  emoluments  of  official  stations — to  become 
a  dominant  aristocracy — an  order  of  self-constituted 
nobilit}^  in  the  midst  of  the  Republic — their  plan  should 
be  to  discourage  education — to  frown  upon  every  attempt 
to  promote  and  extend  it — to  denounce  colleges  and 
schools  of  every  kind — to  put  them  down  where  they 
exist,  and  to  prevent  their  establishment  wherever  de- 
sired. Their  wealth  would  enable  them  to  send  their 
own  sons  abroad  to  be  educated,  while  the  great  body 
of  the  people  could  not  afford  the  expense,  and  would 
consequently  be  compelled  to  see  their  children  become 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  to  their  more 
fortunate  and  privileged  neighbours. 

Great  is  the  mistake  which  is  current  on  this  subject, 
that  colleges  are  designed  exclusively  for  the  rich — that 
none  but  the  rich  can  be  benefited  by  them — and  there- 
fore, that  the  State  ought  not  to  patronize  or  endow 
them.  That  funds  for  their  support  ought  not  to  be 
drawn  from  the  public  treasury  or  the  people's  purse. 
Because  this  would  be  to  tax  the  many  for  the  advantage 
of  a  few.  Nothing  can  be  more  groundless  and  Mlacious 
than  such  a  representation.  No  course  more  injurious  to 
the  people  were  it  adopted.  The  direct  contrary  is  their 
true  policy  and  interest.  For  were  a  college  established 
and  maintained  by  an  equitable  tax  upon  the  people — 


26  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

who  would  pay  the  tax?  Not  the  poor — for  no  tax,  or 
next  to  none,  is  ever  levied  on  them.  Men  would  con- 
tribute according  to  'their  means;  and  the  principal 
burthen  would  necessarily  fall  upon  the  rich,  as  in  reason 
and  justice  it  ought.  The  rich  then  would  be  taxed  for 
the  benefit  of  the  whole  community. 

It  is  evident,  as  I  before  remarked,  that  the  rich,  at 
least,  the  very  rich,  could  easily  educate  their  children 
at  distant  or  foreign  seminaries.  And  it  would  be  greatly 
to  their  advantage  to  do  so,  at  any  expense,  were  there 
no  seminaries  at  home,  or  within  every  one's  reach. 
Suppose  there  were  no  college  in  Tennessee — and  but 
twenty  individuals  wealthy  enough  to  send  their  sons  to 
a  college  out  of  the  State — it  would  then  be  in  the  power 
of  a  score  or  two  of  persons  to  monopolize  all  the  liberal 
professions  and  all  the  avenues  to  wealth  and  honour  in 
the  commonwealth.  But  raise  up  colleges  among  your- 
selves, and  you  reduce  the  charges  of  a  liberal  education 
so  considerably  that  hundreds  and  thousands  can  imme- 
diately avail  themselves  of  their  aid.  Not  only  all  the 
middling  classes  of  citizens,  but  enterprising  youth  of 
the  poorest  families  may  contrive  to  enter  the  lists  of 
honourable  competition  with  the  richest.  As'  is  done 
every  day  in  the  Northern  and  Eastern  States;  where, 
indeed,  the  poor,  more  frequently  than  the  rich,  rise  to 
eminence  by  their  talents  and  learning.  Such  is  the  pe- 
culiar genius  and  excellence  of  our  republican  institutions, 
that,  moral  and  mental  worth  is  the  surest  passport  to  dis- 
tinction. The  humblest  individual,  by  the  diligent  culti- 
vation of  his  faculties,  may,  without  the  aid  of  family  or 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  27 

fortune,  attain  the  most  exalted  stations  within  the 
reach  or  gift  of  freemen.  What  an  encouragement  to 
studious  effort  and  enterprise?  What  an  incentive  to 
the  generous  aspirings  and  honourable  ambition  of  our 
youth?  Why  should  not  the  door  be  opened  wide  for 
their  entrance  upon  this  vast  theatre  of  useful  action 
and  noble  daring? 

But,  it  may  be  said,  that  common  elementary  schools 
are  sufficient  to  answer  every  valuable  purpose — that 
these  ought  chiefly  to  be  encouraged  by  the  State — that 
the  great  majority  of  the  people,  after  all,  must  be  con- 
tent with  a  comparatively  limited  education — that  it 
would  be  absurd  to  think  of  giving  to  all  a  liberal  educa- 
tion even  w^ere  it  practicable — because,  if  acquired,  it 
would  be  superfluous  or  injurious,  inasmuch  as  only  a 
small  number,  at  best,  can  hope  to  succeed  in  the  learned 
professions  or  to  fill  the  public  offices. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  utter  a  syllable  in  opposition  to 
primary  schools.  They  are  indispensable — and  ought  to 
be  found  in  every  neighbourhood.  But  the  best  mode  of 
encouraging  and  multiplying  these  is  carefully  to  foster 
the  higher  seminaries — because  the  latter  must  or  ought 
to  furnish  teachers  to  the  former.  The  greater  the  num- 
ber of  the  liberally  educated^  in  any  country,  the  better 
the  chance  of  obtaining  suitable  instructors  for  the  in- 
ferior institutions.  Wherever  colleges  abound,  there  is 
no  difficulty  in  providing  teachers  for  all  the  academies 
and  schools  in  their  vicinity.  Witness  the  four  uni- 
versities of  Scotland  and  the  dozen  colleges  in  New 
England.     And  wdiat  country  can  compare  with  these 


28  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

for  the  general  difFusion  of  knowledge  among  the  people  ? 
Where  are  common  schools  so  numerous  or  so  efiective? 
Where  can  be  found  so  many  well  educated  men — so 
many  college  graduates?  Were  there  a  like  proportion 
in  Tennessee,  there  would  be  no  lack  of  village  and 
country  schools.  They  would  grow  up  of  course  and 
from  necessity.  As  education  extends,  the  desire  and 
demand  for  it  increase.  Numbers  will  leave  college 
every  3'ear  compelled  to  gain  a  livelihood  by  their  own 
exertions.  Some  will  not  have  the  means  to  prosecute 
the  study  of  a  profession  immediatel}' — some  will  not 
have  the  inclination  or  the  proper  qualifications — 
besides,  many  will  despair  of  succeeding  where  the 
candidates  are  so  numerous,  and  therefore  will  be  glad 
to  teach  as  a  regular  business.  Thus  the  gradual  supply 
to  the  community  of  persons  qualified  and  willing  to 
instruct,  and  the  constantly  increasing  thirst  for  know- 
ledge among  the  people,  will  react  upon  each  other — the 
latter  making  room  and  giving  employment  to  the  former, 
who  by  their  influence,  example,  and  labours,  will  more 
and  more  extend  and  a^vaken  the  spirit  of  improvement. 
In  this  Avay  too,  teacliing  would  soon  become,  what  it 
ought  to  be,  an  honourable  calling  or  profession.  The 
advantages  which  would  result  to  this  State  from  such  a 
policy,  are  incalculable.  And  the  individuals  who  shall 
succeed  in  introducing  it,  will  be  hailed  as  public  bene- 
factors to  the  latest  generations. 

But  there  is  another  prevailing  heresy  on  this  subject 
which  deserves  exposure  and  condemnation.  It  is,  that 
superior  learning  is  necessary  only  for  a  few  particular 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  29 

professions  and  situations — such  as  we  have  been  con- 
temphiting.  Now,  I  aflfimi,  in  opposition,  it  may  be,  to 
all  the  learned  faculties  of  all  the  learned  professions, 
and  to  all  vulgar  prejudices,  that  every  individual,  who 
wishes  to  rise  above  the  level  of  a  mere  labourer  at  task- 
work, ought  to  endeavour  to  obtain  a  liberal  education. 
I  use  the  term  liberal  in  a  liberal  sense;  without  ne- 
cessarily including  every  branch  of  literature  or  science 
which  usually  constitutes  a  college  course.  The  farmer, 
the  mechanic,  the  manufacturer,  the  merchant,  the  sailor, 
the  soldier,  if  they  would  be  distinguished  in  their  re- 
spective callings  must  be  educated.  Should  it  be  ob- 
jected, that  well-educated  youth  will  not  labour  for  their 
support;  that,  if  they  become  farmers  or  manufacturers, 
they  will,  at  most,  merely  superintend  and  direct  the 
labours  of  others,  I  answer — 1st.  That  we,  at  this  moment, 
need  thousands  of  such  men.  Would  not  every  planter 
who  cultivates  the  soil  by  slaves,  and  every  farmer  who 
does  the  same  by  hired  labourers,  be  the  better,  the 
happier,  the  more  useful  with  a  good  education  than 
without  it?  May  not  the  same  be  said  of  the  directors 
of  printing,  mercantile,  and  manufacturing  establish- 
ments: and,  indeed,  of  every  man  who  is  above,  or 
aspires  to  be  above,  the  meanest  drudgery  of  manual 
labour?  Here  then  are  thousands  in  the  community, 
who,  or  whose  children  at  least,  might  be  liberally  edu- 
cated without  diminishing  the  number  of  actual  labourers. 
So  that  any  increase  of  seminaries,  upon  any  plan,  is  not 
likely  very  soon  to  affect  the  common  concerns  of  pro- 
ductive industry,  except  by  bringing  to  bear  upon  them 


30  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

the  salutary  influence  of  more  light  and  knowledge,  and 
so  far  greatly  to  improve  and  meliorate  the  character 
and  condition  of  all  classes  of  citizens. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  were  it  possible  to  give,  what 
might  be  styled  a  liberal  education  of  a  suitable  kind 
to  every  child  of  the  Republic,  so  far  from  proving  detri- 
mental to  industry  and  enterprise,  it  would  produce  a 
directly  contrary  effect.  Diflerences  in  rank,  station, 
and  fortune  would  still  exist.  The  pulpit,  the  bar,  the 
healing  art,  the  army,  the  navy,  the  legislative  hall,  the 
bench  of  justice,  and  all  posts  of  honour  and  emolument, 
would,  of  course,  be  occupied,  then  as  now^  by  men 
of  comparatively  superior  talents,  learning  or  address. 
While  the  remainder  would  be  compelled,  according  to 
their  abilities  or  necessities,  to  do  what  they  best  could 
for  a  livelihood.  Though  all  would  be  learned  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  yet  there  would  be  various  gradations  of 
excellence.  The  competition  for  honourable  distinction 
w^ould  range  on  a  higher  scale,  and  among  men  of  greater 
intellectual  attainments,  than  is  now  the  case;  but  in 
reference  to  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  the  principle 
and  the  result  would  be  the  same.  All  would  find  their 
level,  and  every  individual  his  appropriate  place  and 
sphere.  Even  supposing  then,  what  is  not  likely  soon 
to  happen,  that  all  were  educated — and  educated  in  the 
best  manner,  we  need  not  apprehend  that  a  famine  would 
ensue  from  lack  of  industry. 

In  the  third  place,  so  far  as  the  experiment  has  been 
made,  we  find  that  the  educated  poor  do  in  fact  become, 
in  the  same   proportion,  more   industrious,  useful  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  31 

happy.  I  appeal  to  the  school  at  Hofwyl — to  history, 
and  to  the  actual  state  of  the  world — to  every  fact  which 
can  be  adduced  as  bearing  upon  the  argument.  Three 
centuries  ago,  it  was  considered  dangerous  for  the  com- 
mon people  anywhere  to  be  taught  even  the  art  of  read- 
ing. And  a  mechanic  who  could  then  read  his  Bible 
was  a  greater  rarity  than  would  be,  in  our  day,  a  me- 
chanic who  could  read  Homer  in  his  native  tongue. 

Man  is  a  moral  and  intellectual  being ;  and  his  moral 
and  intellectual  faculties  ought  to  be  cultivated,  inde- 
pendently of  the  sordid  motive  or  prospect  of  pecuniary 
gain,  or  of  a  mere  livelihood.  The  grand  question 
among  real  philanthropists  will  be,  if  it  be  not  already, 
what  system  of  discipline  is  best  calculated  to  render 
men  virtuous  and  happy? — Not  what  will  render  them 
rich  and  honourable  and  powerful?  All  cannot  b(  rich. 
The  great  mass  must  ever  remain  in  comparatively 
humble  circumstances.  But  all  may  be  virtuous  and 
happy — so  far,  at  least,  as  virtue  and  happiness  can  be 
predicated  of  mortals  in  this  world.  The  labouring  classes 
of  the  people  do  not  labour  always.  They  have  their 
seasons  of  mirth  and  pleasure — of  recreation  and  amuse- 
ment. Of  what  character  these  usually  are  need  hardly 
be  specified.  Let  the  tavern,  the  grog-shop,  the  court- 
house, the  gaming  table,  and  every  gathering  on  public 
and  festive  occasions,  proclaim  their  value  and  amount. 
Could  not  these  people  be  better  employed?  Are  they 
incapable  of  any  enjoyment  superior  to  that  of  the  brute 
sensualist?  Why  is  it,  that,  whenever  they  have  a 
leisure  hour,  they  become,  in  one  way  or  another,  the 


32  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

tormentors  of  themselves  and  their  fomihes?  •  What 
should  hinder  the  poor  man  from  enjoying  a  literary 
repast  just  as  Avell  as  the  rich  man?  Nothing  surely  but 
the  want  of  that  previous  training  which  would  enable 
him  to  relish  it.  Were  a  literary  taste  once  imbibed, 
books  would  be  resorted  to  for  entertainment  and  in- 
struction :  and  these  would  prove,  not  only  a  more  inno- 
cent, rational  and  beneficial  source  of  enjoyment,  but 
vastly  cheaper  than  any  of  those  which  administer  to 
the  gratification  of  the  mere  animal  and  vicious  appetites 
and  propensities.  How  different  an  aspect  would  human 
society  present  were  every  farm-house  and  cottage  sup- 
plied with  useful  books  and  every  inmate  a  reader?  In- 
telligence would  then  beam  from  every  eye ;  and  home — 
sacred  home,  would  be  the  scene  of  the  purest  pleasures. 
Contentment  too  would  smile  on  every  countenance — 
with  pious  hope  animating  every  bosom,  and  virtue  gilding 
the  pathway  of  life's  humble  pilgrimage  to  brighter  man- 
sions in  the  skies !  Thus  would  be  realized  on  earth  the 
poet's  golden  age,  and  the  Christian's  millennial  elysium. 
Whenever  science  and  religion  shall  have  gained  uni- 
versal dominion,  then  peace  and  liappiness  will  crown 
the  lot  of  every  mortal. 

Men  are  exceedingly  prone  to  be  blind  to  their  own 
best  interests.  Hence  the  opposition  to  all  benevolent 
and  patriotic  schemes  and  enterprises,  at  least,  during 
their  early  and  incipient  stages;  and  until  experience 
shall  have  established  their  claims  to  general  patronage 
and  support.  Hence  the  illiberal  prejudices  against 
learnins:.  and  learned  men.  and  literary  institutions,  still 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  33 

deeply  rooted  in  many  parts  of  the  world,  and  of  our 
own  country  too. 

King  Alfred,  in  an  age  which  we  despise  as  barbarous, 
understood  this  matter  far  better  than  many  of  the 
sapient  monarchs  and  republican  statesmen  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  "  We  will  and  command,  (says  he,  in 
one  of  his  public  acts,)  that  all  freemen  of  our  kingdom 
whosoever,  possessing  two  hides  of  land,  shall  bring  up 
their  sons  in  learning  till  they  be  fifteen  years  of  age  at 
least,  that  so  they  may  be  trained  up  to  know  God,  to 
be  men  of  understanding,  and  to  live  happily ;  for,  of  a 
man  that  is  born  free,  and  yet  unliterate,  we  repute  no 
otherwise  than  of  a  beast  or  a  brainless  body,  and  a  very 
sot."  And  it  is  well  known,  that,  in  the  University  of 
Oxford,  which  he  either  founded  or  revived,  ten  times 
as  many  youth  were  educated,  during  a  part  of  his  illus- 
trious reign,  as  at  the  present  day.  Had  the  spirit  of 
Alfred  animated  his  successors,  many  ages  of  darkness, 
superstition,  tyranny  and  wretchedness  had  been  spared 
to  the  land  of  our  sires — and  America  might  have  been 
centuries  in  advance  of  her  present  attainments. 

Admitting  then  that  colleges  are  necessary,  no  less  than 
common  schools,  the  question  arises,  how  and  by  whom 
are  they  to  be  established?  Our  general  government 
does  not  think  proper  to  interfere — or  to  make  provision 
for  this  most  momentous  concern.  It  is  evident,  there- 
fore, that  colleges  and  all  literary  institutions  must  owe 
their  origin  and  support  to  the  several  State  legislatures, 
or  to  the  munificence  of  public-spirited  individuals.  Some 
of  the  States  have  adopted  a  wise  and  liberal  policy  in 


34  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

this  behalf.  Witness  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Vir- 
ginia, the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia.  Others  have  done 
something,  while  many  have  done  nothing.  It  does  not 
become  me,  a  stranger,  to  speak  of  the  acts  of  the  Ten- 
nessee Legislature  in  relation  to  her  colleges.  Whether 
they  could  with  propriety  do  more  than  they  actually 
have  done,  may  depend  on  circumstances  of  which  I  am 
ignorant,  or  not  a  competent  judge.  It  is  certain,  how- 
ever, that  Cumberland  College,  if  she  attain  to  a  rank 
equal  to  her  sister  institutions,  must  be  indebted  chiefly 
to  individual  enterprise  and  liberality.  Her  funds,  what- 
ever may  be  their  ultimate  value,  are,  at  present,  unpro- 
ductive ;  consisting  of  landed  property,  which  cannot  be 
sold  without  a  sacrifice,  and  which  it  is  desirable  to 
retain  until  it  can  be  brought  into  a  better  market. 
The  trustees  of  the  institution,  and  many  of  its  friends 
in  this  town  and  vicinity,  have  contributed  handsomely 
towards  its  support.  But  much — very  much  remains 
yet  to  be  accomplished.  The  grand  experiment  is  about 
to  be  made,  whether  this  college  shall  be  organized  on  a 
permanent  and  respectable  basis  :  or  whether  it  again  be 
destined  to  a  temporary  existence  and  to  ultimate  failure 
from  the  want  of  due  encouragement  and  patronage 
from  the  wealthy  citizens  of  West  Tennessee  and  the 
adjacent  States.  That  there  are  ample  means  in  the 
hands  and  at  the  disposal  of  the  good  people  of  this  vast 
and  fertile  section  of  our  country  cannot  be  doubted. 
Situated  as  this  college  is,  almost  on  the  line  which 
separates  the  healthy  from  the  unhealthy  portions  of 
the  gA;at  valley  of  the  Mississippi — as  fir  south,  proba- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  35 

bl}^,  as  it  will  ever  be  desirable  to  establish  a  seminary 
of  the  kind — and  offering,  as  it  does,  inducements  the 
most  powerful  to  the  notice  and  patronage  of  Alabama, 
Mississippi  and  Louisiana,  may  we  not  indulge  the  hope 
that  the  opulent  citizens  of  this  extensive  region  will 
not  suffer  our  infant  establishment  to  languish  and  die, 
under  their  eyes  and  at  their  very  doors,  from  any  paltry 
jealousies  or  illiberal  sentiments  and  prejudices?  May 
we  not  trust,  that,  by  judicious  and  seasonable  efforts 
and  representations,  our  funds  may  be  gradually  aug- 
mented until  the  most  sanguine  wishes  of  the  founders 
and  patrons  of  this  college  shall  be  fully  attained  ?  Let 
us  be  encouraged  by  the  success  which  has  crowned  the 
labours  of  our  brethren  in  other  States.  The  Theological 
Seminary  at  Andover  received  from  a  few  benevolent 
donors  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  almost  at  the 
outset.  The  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton  has,  by 
perseverance  in  a  regular  system  of  begging,  within  a 
period  of  twelve  years,  succeeded  in  erecting  all  the  ne- 
cessary edifices,  in  procuring  a  library  of  six  thousand 
volumes,  and  in  endowing  all  the  necessary  professor- 
ships. Yale  College  and  Nassau  Hall,  without  the 
smallest  legislative  aid,  have,  by  a  similar  course,  Ijeen 
exalted  to  the  highest  rank  among  the  colleges  of  our 
country.  The  example  of  Transylvania  University  is 
still  nearer  at  hand  and  more  prominently  within  your 
view. 

Let  us  then  not  despair,  or  remit  our  exertions. 
Every  dollar  obtained  is  an  encouragement  to  solicit 
more.      Reduced  to  the  necessity  of  asking  assistance, 


36  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

let  US  not  be  ashamed  to  beg  until  there  shall  be  no 
further  need  of  it.  The  cause  is  worthy  of  the  people's 
charity.  It  is  emphatically  the  cause  of  the  people — and 
of  all  the  people,  without  distinction  of  sect  or  name. 
For  Cumberland  College,  though  a  Christian,  is  not  a 
sectarian  institution.  Its  immediate  patrons  and  direc- 
tors belong  to  several  religious  denominations.  It  is  the 
property  of  no  sect  or  party.  It  looks  for  support  to  the 
liberal  of  all  persuasions — and  is  pledged  to  be  equally 
friendly  and  indulgent  to  every  class  and  description  of 
citizens.  No  parent  need  apprehend  danger  to  the  reli- 
gious creed  of  his  son  by  any  influence  which  shall  here 
be  exerted.  With  this  understanding,  and  with  this 
catholic  declaration,  we  confidently  appeal  to  the  gene- 
rosity of  all  our  fellow-citizens,  assuring  them  that  their 
charity  will  not  be  misapphed  or  unworthily  bestowed. 

To  the  citizens  of  Nashville,  a  more  selfish  argument 
might  be  addressed,  were  it  worthy  of  the  object  or  the 
occasion.  They  will  chiefly  reap  the  immediate  benefit 
of  the  pecuniary  expenditure  which  must  necessarily  fol- 
low the  establishment  of  a  flourishing  literary  institution 
in  their  village.  Every  student  who  comes  from  abroad 
will  contribute  to  the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  this 
people.  New  Haven  derives  a  revenue  of  between  two 
and  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  annually  from  her 
students.  Were  you,  therefore,  merely  to  consult  your 
own  pecuniary  emolument  in  this  concern,  it  would  be 
greatly  to  your  interest  to  advance  the  whole  sum  neces- 
sary to  insure  complete  success  to  your  college.  It  could 
be  easily  shown  also,  that  the  surrounding  country,  and, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  37 

indeed,  the  whole  State  would  be  proportionably  bene- 
fited by  every  addition  to  the  wealth  of  this  town. 
Could  Nashville  be  made  to-morrow  as  large  and  wealthy 
as  Philadelphia,  it  would  instantly  stamp  a  hundred-fold 
value  on  all  the  property  and  employments  in  the  coun- 
try for  many  hundred  miles  in  every  direction.  There 
is  no  ground  therefore,  in  any  view  of  the  subject,  for 
the  slightest  local  or  sectional  jealousy  or  hostility. 

I  proceed  to  another  very  important  branch  of  this 
very  comprehensive  subject.  And  here  again  I  must 
content  myself  with  a  few  general  remarks.  A  great 
desideratum  in  the  education  of  youth  is  such  a  system 
as  will  most  effectually  develop,  invigorate  and  mature 
all  the  faculties,  physical,  mental  and  moral.  The 
body,  the  mind  and  the  heart  ought  to  be  the  objects  of 
the  most  assiduous  care  and  cultivation  in  every  semi- 
nary of  learning.  I  need  not  stop  here  to  philosophize 
on  the  connection  which  subsists  between  the  body  and 
the  mind,  or  to  show  how  they  mutually  affect  and  in- 
fluence each  other.  The  fact  is  too  well  known  to 
require  proof  or  illustration.  "  Sana  mens  in  sano  cor- 
pore,"  is  an  ancient  adage.  Among  the  republican 
Greeks  and  Romans  of  the  purest  ages,  no  pains  were 
spared  to  train  their  youth  to  health,  vigour  and  activity, 
while  they  were  acquiring  a  learned  and  liberal  educa- 
tion. Their  gymnasia  and  paJcestrw  sufficiently  indicate 
the  original  and  primary  purposes  of  their  institution. 
The  arts  and  sciences,  philosophy  and  rhetoric,  were 
taught  by  the  most  accomplished  masters,  in  a  w\ay 
calculated  to  elicit  all  the  ener<2;ies  of  the  mind,  and  to 


38  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

inspire  their  pupils  with  a  generous  emulation  to  excel. 
These  listened,  not  merely  to  a  course  of  lectures  got  up 
by  the  aid  of  the  dead  and  the  living — and  pronounced  ex 
cathedra  with  magisterial  solemnity  and  soporific  pathos  : 
nor  were  they  compelled  to  commit  to  memory  the 
rounded  periods  and  loose  statements  of  a  prosing  text- 
book, but  they  were  permitted  to  inquire  and  to  reason — 
to  interrogate  their  instructors — to  discuss  subjects — to 
start  difficulties — to  examine  and  to  master  the  i^ro  and 
con.  of  every  question.  Thus  were  their  talents  called 
forth,  and  tried,  and  sharpened,  and  prepared  for  active 
life.  Thus  was  their  knowledge  rendered  practical, 
exact  and  ever  ready  for  use.  It  was  their  own,  in  the 
strictest  sense  of  the  term.  It  had  been  thoroughly 
canvassed,  sifted  and  adopted  upon  evidence.  It  had 
been  reasoned  into  them,  and  incorporated  with  their 
very  nature.  When,  therefore,  they  were  called  to  pre- 
pare an  oration  for  the  forum  or  the  senate — when  they 
sat  down  to  compose  a  treatise  on  any  subject,  they  were 
not  compelled  to  recur  to  a  thousand  volumes  for  senti- 
ment, metaphor,  illustration  or  argument.  They  drew 
from  their  own  stores.  They  spoke  and  wrote  like  men 
who  were  masters  of  their  subject.  And  hence  the 
originality  which  so  pre-eminently  characterizes  their 
productions.  Every  piece  is,  in  a  great  measure,  an 
unique — It  is  of  that  continued  uniform  texture  wdiich 
bespeaks  it  the  work  of  a  single  artist.  No  patchwork 
of  various  colours  and  qualities — the  manufacture  of  a 
hundred  ages  and  countries,  as  is  not  unfrequently  the 
case  with  the  modern  scholar,  who  ventures  not  to  write 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  39 

a  page  without  the  inspiring  and  guiding  genius  of  some 
ponderous  folio  ever  at  his  elbow. 

Their  schools,  too,  were  all  theatres  of  active  sports 
and  games  and  military  tacticks.  Inured  to  labour,  to 
athletic  exercises,  to  temperance,  to  study,  to  every 
species  of  bodily  and  mental  effort  from  infancy,  their 
youth  entered  upon  the  duties  of  manhood  with  every 
advantage,  prepared  to  serve  their  country  in  the  cabinet 
and  in  the  field,  in  peace  and  in  war,  at  home  and 
abroad,  in  public  and  in  private,  with  the  strength  of 
Hercules  and  the  wisdom  of  Minerva. 

The  moderns  have  dispensed  with  this  hardy  training. 
Colleges  and  universities  have  long  been  consecrated  to 
literary  ease,  indulgence  and  refinement.  In  them, 
miyid  only  is  attempted  to  be  cultivated,  to  the  entire 
neglect  of  the  bodily  faculties.  This  is  a  radical  defect; 
so  obvious  and  striking  too  as  to  admit  of  no  apology  or 
defence.  Youth,  at  most  public  seminaries,  are  liable  to 
become  so  delicate,  so  effeminate,  so  purely  hookish,  as  to 
be  rendered,  without  some  subsequent  change  of  habit, 
utterly  unfit  for  any  manly  enterprise  or  employment. 
How  frequently  too,  do  they  fall  early  victims  to  this 
ill-timed  system  of  tenderness  and  seclusion  ?  But  this 
is  not  the  worst  of  the  case.  Youth  must  and  will  have 
employment  of  some  kind.  They  cannot  study  ahvays. 
In  our  colleges  they  are  usually  suffered  to  devise  their 
own  w^ays  and  means  of  amusement.  The}^  are  expected 
indeed,  perhaps  exhorted,  to  take  exercise,  and  they  are 
allowed  abundance  of  time  for  the  purpose.  Still  the 
whole  concern  is  left  to  their  own  discretion.     The  time 


40  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

they  have — and  the  question  is,  how  do  they  spend  it  ? 
Often  in  mere  idle  lounging,  talking,  smoking  and  sleep- 
ing. Often  in  sedentary  games,  which,  whether  in  them- 
selves lawful  or  unlawful,  are  always  injurious  to  the 
student,  because  he  requires  recreation  of  a  different 
kind.  But  too  frequently  in  low  degrading  dissipation, 
in  drinking  and  gaming,  to  the  utter  neglect  of  every 
duty,  and  to  the  utter  abandonment  and  sacrifice  of 
every  principle  of  honour  and  virtue.  I  will  not  finish 
the  melancholy  picture  which  I  had  begun  to  sketch, 
not  indeed  from  fancy  or  from  books,  but  from  facts 
which  I  have  often  witnessed,  and  which  have  some- 
times led  me  almost  to  question  the  paramount  utility 
of  such  institutions  to  the  community.  Still,  with  all 
their  faults,  I  remain  their  decided  advocate.  But  may 
they  not  be  improved ;  or  may  not  others  be  organized 
upon  wiser  and  safer  principles  ? 

That  system,  which  should  provide  complete  employ- 
ment of  a  'pro])eT  kind,  for  all  the  time  of  every  indi- 
vidual, would,  in  my  opinion,  be  the  best  system ;  and 
might,  perhaps,  be  fairly  denominated  a  perfect  system. 
And  every  approximation  to  it  will,  to  the  same  extent, 
be  an  approach  to  perfection  in  this  all-important  con- 
cern. Keep  youth  busy,  and  you  keep  them  out  of 
harm's  way.  You  render  them  contented,  virtuous  and 
happy. 

I  have  said  that  the  heart,  or  the  moral  f\iculties, 
ought  to  be  cultivated.  I  am  aware  that  a  system  of 
ethicks  or  moral  philosophy  usually  constitutes  a  part  of 
a  college  course,  and  the  last  part  too.    It  is  studied  as  a 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  41 

science — just  as  chemistry  or  astronomy  is  studied.  But 
the  moral  powers  need  constant  cultivation  from  infancy 
to  manhood.  Correct  habits  of  thinking  and  acting  are 
to  be  formed.  Precept,  lecture,  exhortation,  are  not 
enough.  The  daily  walk  and  conversation  must  be  in- 
spected, guarded,  and  moulded,  if  practicable,  into  the 
purest  form.  The  Bible  ought  to  be  studied,  and  its  les- 
sons of  wisdom  diligently  enforced  and  practically  ex- 
emplified. I  say  nothing  of  creeds,  or  confessions,  or 
systems  of  doctrine.  I  speak  of  the  Bible — the  grand 
charter  of  our  holy  religion — of  our  common  Chris- 
tianity. And  who  of  the  great  Christian  family  can 
object  to  this?  In  the  heathen  schools,  youth  w^ere 
always  taught  the  religion  of  their  country.  Every  Mus- 
sulman is  required  to  be  master  of  the  Koran.  And 
shall  Christian  youth  be  less  favored  than  the  Pagan 
and  Mohammedan  ?  Have  w^e  a  book  bearing  the  im- 
press of  heaven — confessedly  embodying  the  purest 
morality  ever  yet  known  in  the  world — the  only  au- 
thentic record  of  the  origin  of  our  race,  and  of  the  most 
stupendous  events  which  have  occurred  upon  our  globe — 
filled  with  scenes  of  real  life  the  most  instructive,  with 
biographical  incident  the  most  extraordinary  and  pa- 
thetic, with  strains  of  eloquence  and  poetry  the  most 
melting  and  sublime — and  withal  professing  to  be,  and 
acknowledged  to  be,  our  only  safe  guide  through  life, 
and  the  foundation  of  all  our  hopes  of  a  blessed  immor- 
tality— shall  this  book  be  excluded  from  our  seminaries. 
and  withheld  from  our  youth,  at  the  very  period  too, 
when  they  most  need  its  salutary  restraints  and  purify- 


42  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

ing  influence  ?  And  this,  lest,  perad venture,  some -specu- 
lative error,  or  some  sectarian  opinion  might  be  imbibed  ? 
as  if  worse  errors,  and  more  inveterate  prejudices,  and 
the  most  pernicious  principles,  will  not  be  sure  to  find 
their  way  into  that  heart  which  remains  a  stranger  to 
the  hallowed  precepts  of  the  sacred  volume.  But  I  in- 
tend to  offer  no  formal  argument  upon  this  point  just 
now.  In  every  place  of  education,  the  Bible  ought  to  be 
the  daily  companion  of  every  individual ;  and  no  man 
ought  to  be  suffered  to  teach  at  all  who  refuses  to  teach 
the  Bible.  "  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go, 
and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it,"  is  the 
doctrine  of  revelation,  of  reason,  and  of  experience. 

The  benevolent  and  enterprising  Fellenberg  has  done 
much  towards  remedying  the  existing  evils  attendant  on 
a  public  education,  and  also  towards  making  provision 
for  the  proper  instruction  of  the  poor.  He  has  contrived, 
without  expense  to  himself  or  others,  to  educate  liberally 
hundreds  of  the  poorest  children  of  Switzerland,  and  he 
is  still  engaged  in  this  good  work.  At  Hofwyl  the  poor 
maintain  themselves  by  labour.  The  rich  pay  for  their 
privileges.  And  all  are  constantly  under  the  eye  and 
control  of  their  teachers.  There,  the  poor  learn  trades, 
or  become  practical  farmers,  at  the  same  time  that  they 
are  thoroughly  instructed  in  every  branch  of  useful  sci- 
ence. The  rich  are  trained  to  all  manly  exercises,  and 
to  various  useful  arts,  while  their  minds  are  diligently 
cultivated  by  the  most  accomplished  professors.  M.  Fel- 
lenberg appears,  so  far  as  we  are  enabled  to  judge  from 
the  several  statements  which  have  reached  us,  to  have 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  43 

completely  succeeded  in  supplying  the  deficiencies  of  the 
old  system,  and  in  forming  an  institution  adapted  to  the 
character  and  the  wants  of  all  classes  of  citizens.  There, 
the  body,  the  mind,  and  the  heart,  receive  their  due  pro- 
portion of  care  and  improvement.  There  is  no  idleness, 
no  dissipation,  no  extravagance,  no  effeminacy,  no  sacri- 
fice of  time,  money,  health  or  morals.  All  is  life,  vi- 
gour, animation,  order,  industry,  emulation.  Every 
moment  is  profitably  improved.  The  employments  are 
so  judiciously  varied  that  they  never  become  irksome 
or  oppressive.  Every  change  is  a  relief,  and  partakes 
of  the  nature  of  recreation.  The  shop,  the  field,  the 
garden,  riding,  fencing  and  other  military  exercises, 
musick,  history,  ancient  and  modern  languages,  the 
mechanical  and  the  fine  arts,  with  all  the  sciences 
physical  and  moral,  abstract  and  practical,  constitute 
the  business,  the  amusement,  and  the  study  of  this  well 
regulated  establishment. 

Several  of  the  most  eminent  noblemen  of  Russia  and 
Germany  have  already  sent  their  sons  to  Hofwyl,  in 
preference  to  any  and  to  all  the  Universities  of  Europe. 
A  similar  establishment  would  doubtless  find  liberal 
patrons  among  American  gentlemen.  A  practical  ac- 
quaintance with  agriculture  and  the  useful  arts  would, 
on  their  own  account,  be  advantageous  to  every  man  : 
but,  considered  as  a  part  of  moral  and  healthful  dis- 
cipline, their  importance  is  greatly  enhanced.  Should 
some,  however,  object  to  mere  manual  labour  of  any 
kind,  as  too  degrading  to  their  high  descent  and  lofty 
aspiring,  though  resorted  to  chiefly  as  exercise  and  re- 


44  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

creation,  still  regular  active  employment,  in  sufficient 
abundance  and  variety,  may  be  provided  even  for  the 
most  fastidious ;  and  such  as  they  would  esteem  gentle- 
manly accomplishments,  at  the  same  time  that  they  are 
acknowledged  to  be  valuable.  These,  at  proper  seasons, 
and  under  the  direction  of  proper  authority,  might  oc- 
cupy many  an  hour  which  would  otherwise  be  worse 
spent.  Neither  Greek  nor  Mathematics  would  lose  any 
thing  by  such  interruptions.  Let  these  general  hints  go 
for  what  they  are  worth.  I  am  no  advocate  for  sudden 
changes  and  innovations,  nor  am  I  invincibly  attached 
to  the  beaten  track  of  my  fathers. 

But  since  I  have  ventured  thus  far,  allow  me  to  pur- 
sue the  train  of  speculation  suggested  by  Fellenberg's 
system,  as  applicable  to  the  hardy  sous  of  our  honest 
yeomanry  and  mechanics — not  excluding  those  of  the 
humblest  poverty,  wherever  the  germ  of  future  excel- 
lence can  be  discerned.  I  have  already  shown  how  col- 
leges of  any  kind  must  or  may  benefit  the  middling  and 
poorer  classes  of  the  people ;  and,  that,  it  is  their  special 
interest  to  wish  them  success.  Here,  however,  a  more 
direct  chance  for  mental  culture  may  be  offered  them — 
and  for  such  culture  as  best  befits  their  previous  habits, 
their  present  circumstances,  and  their  future  prospects. 
As  they  cannot  be  expected  to  pay  as  liberal^  for  their 
privileges  as  the  rich,  let  them  fare  and  dress  according 
to  the  dimensions  of  their  purses — let  them  supply  any 
deficiency  by  their  labour — or,  Avhen  necessary,  let  them 
maintain  themselves  entirely  by  their  own  industry,  as 
is  done  by  the  poor  at  Hofwyl.     Two  liundred  acres  of 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  45 

land,  more  or  less,  in  the  vicinity  of  Nashville,  divided 
into  fields  and  gardens,  under  judicious  management, 
would  afford  to  many  a  youth,  not  only  a  practical 
knowledge  of  farming  and  horticulture,  but  the  means 
of  living  while  he  is  pursuing  his  studies  at  the  college. 
Let  some  dozen  or  twenty  mechanics  of  good  moral  cha- 
racter, be  duly  authorized  to  open  their  shops  for  such, 
as  might  prefer,  or  as  might  be  better  adapted  to,  this 
species  of  labour.  Thus,  many  useful  trades  might  be 
learned,  and  the  whole  expense  of  their  education  be  de- 
frayed, without  any  material  loss  of  time — even  if  time, 
thus  employed,  could  be  accounted  lost.  A  youth, 
ardent  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  would  learn  more 
in  half  his  time  than  most  of  the  indulged  sons  of  afflu- 
ence actually  acquire  in  the  whole.  And  there  are  few 
industrious  young  men  who  could  not  earn  their  living, 
and  a  little  more,  by  labouring  half  of  their  time  :  espe- 
cially in  a  town  where  so  many  profitable  occupations 
would  be  at  their  option,  and  where  the  products  of  the 
field,  the  garden,  and  the  workshop,  would  ever  find  a 
ready  market. 

The  most  startling  difiiculty  in  the  way  of  any  plan 
of  this  kind,  would  be  suggested,  probably,  by  the  ob- 
vious inequality  and  apparently  invidious  distinctions 
which  would  obtain  among  the  pupils  of  the  same  insti- 
tution. But  does  not  a  similar  inequality  exist  among 
our  citizens  and  youth  every^vhere  in  society?  The 
objection,  however,  is  merely  specious.  For,  in  the  first 
placCj  none  but  youth  (poor  youth,  I  mean,)  determined 
to  have  an  education,  would  resort  to  such  an  institu- 


46  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

tion.  These  would  soon  learn  to  disregard  or  despise 
the  petlts  maitres  who  might  affect  to  be  their  superiors. 
They  would  in  foot  be  as  independent  as  the  richest. 
How  much  more  truh'  respectable  and  republican  would 
be  their  condition,  while  thus  Jahonring  for  the  food  of 
body  and  mind,  than  that  of  the  student  who  is  sup- 
ported in  luxurious  ease  by  the  charity  of  individuals, 
or  of  the  public  ?  How  vastly  preferable  to  the  situar 
tion  of  a  Cambridge  sizer  or  Oxford  servitor — many  of 
whom,  nevertheless,  have  filled,  and  are  filling,  the 
highest  stations  in  church  and  state?  In  the  second 
place,  the  esprit  clu  corps,  which  would  prevail  in  the 
several  ranks  or  classes  of  students,  would  serve  to  keep 
each  other  in  countenance,  and  to  render  them  indiffer- 
ent to  imaginary  evils.  Besides,  they  would  be  a  regu- 
lar component  part  of  the  establishment.  They  would 
be  in  the  fashion.  They  would  conform  to  established 
usage.  They  would  have  law  and  public  sentiment  in 
their  favour.  They  would  not  form  a  sorry  half  dozen 
of  pitiable  exceptions  to  the  reigning  mode,  as  they 
would,  if  found  in  any  of  our  present  colleges.  They 
would  constitute  a  respectable  moiety — perha]3s,  a  large 
majority  of  the  whole.  And  they  would  be  respectable 
just  in  proportion  to  their  modest,  fearless,  independent 
conformity  to  their  actual  condition.  A  poor  youth  of 
talents  and  becoming  deportment,  will  never  be  long 
despised  an^^vhere.  But  here  he  Avould  occupj^  a  post 
of  honour,  and  have  every  motive  and  every  encourage- 
ment to  persevere,  till  he  should  be  qualified  to  do 
honour  to  himself,  his  friends  and  his  country. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  47 

Should  it  be  tliouglit  impracticable  or  inexpedient  to 
connect  with  this,  or  with  any  other  college,  such  an 
appendage  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  as  I  have  just 
pointed  at — still,  something  of  the  kind  might  be  at- 
tempted in  another  and  distinct  form,  and  it  may  not 
be  unworthy  of  the  serious  consideration  and  patronage 
of  individuals  and  of  the  government.  The  course  of 
instruction  should  be  adapted  to  the  character  and  desti- 
nation of  the  pupils.  An  education  may  be  perfectly 
liberal,  as  I  have  already  intimated,  without  always 
embracing  the  same  precise  order,  kind  or  amount  of 
studies.  Much  discretionary  latitude  will  remain  with 
the  directors  in  this  as  in  other  matters. 

And  now,  in  reference  to  this  topic  generally,  let  it 
be  remembered,  that,  the  particulars  which  have  been 
specified,  need  not  necessarily  enter  into  any  improved 
system  of  education.  The  principle  which  we  have  en- 
deavoured to  illustrate,  admits  of  an  indefinite  variety 
of  modification  and  application.  The  principle,  or,  if 
you  please,  the  genius  of  the  system,  is  constant  employ- 
ment, under  proper  direction,  so  as  most  effectually  to 
improve  every  faculty  of  the  pupil,  and  to  fit  him,  in  the 
best  manner,  to  act  well  his  part  in  future  life. 

Let  us,  then,  borrow  some  ideas  from  the  schools  at 
Hofwyl  and  Yverdun  —  something  from  the  ancient 
Greeks  and  Romans — something  from  our  o^vn  Military 
Academies  at  Norwich  and  West  Point — something  from 
the  pages  of  Locke,  Milton,  Tanaquil  Faber,  Knox,  and 
other  writers — something  from  old  and  existing  institu- 
tions of  whatever  kind — something  from  common  sense, 


^8  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

from  experience,  from  the  character,  circumstances  and 
wants  of  our  youth,  from  the  peculiar  genius  of  our 
political  and  religious  institutions;  and  see  whether 
a  new  gymnasium  or  seminary  may  not  be  established, 
combining  the  excellencies  and  rejecting  the  faults  of 
all.  I  seriously  submit  it  to  my  fellow-citizens,  whether 
this  sulDJect  be  not  worthy  of  more  than  a  passing 
thought  or  momentary  approbation.  Who  is  prepared 
to  enter  fully  into  its  spirit,  and  to  engage  heart  and 
hand  in  the  enterprise  ? 

Will  any  man,  in  this  enlightened  age  of  discovery, 
invention  and  improvement,  pretend  that  we  have 
already  reached  perfection  in  the  science  and  the  work 
of  education — the  very  heau  ideal — the  ne  lolus  ultra 
of  human  skill  and  attainment?  That  nothing  more 
ought  to  be  done,  or  can  be  done,  in  this  vast  province 
of  illimitable  extent,  and  of  infinite  concernment  to  the 
young  and  rising  generation?  Eaikes  and  Bell  and  Lan- 
caster have,  in  our  day,  revolutionized  the  common 
school  system,  and  have  wrought  miracles  in  behalf  of 
the  poor — and,  indeed,  of  all,  during  the  incipient  stages 
of  a  public  education.  Must  we  stop  here?  Can  nothing 
be  effected  within  the  massive  walls  of  our  ancient  and 
venerated  literary  cloisters,  where  the  usages  of  a  thou- 
sand years  still  predominate — where  proud  prescription, 
resting  on  a  throne  of  adamant,  seems  to  arrogate  a 
more  than  popish  infallibility,  and  to  threaten  a  reign 
of  interminable  duration?* 

*  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  inform  the  reader,  that  several  of  the  pre- 
ceding remarks  have  already  l)een  given  to  the  public,  by  the  author, 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  49 

111  an  address  like  the  present,  it  may  ])e  expected 
that  something  should  be  said  relative  to  the  course  of 
study  to  be  adopted  in  our  institution — something  upon 
the  requisite  qualifications  for  admission,  and  something 
on  the  subject  of  government  and  discipline. 

I.  For  admission  into  college,  I  would  briefly  premise, 
that  every  candidate  ought  to  be  able  to  read,  write  and 
spell  his  native  tongue — (I  will  not  say  perfectly — for 
this  would  be  requiring  what  is  seldom  or  never  at- 
tained to  by  any — but  in  a  style  much  superior  to  what 
is  ordinarily  witnessed) — he  ought  to  be  well  skilled  in 
Geography,  English  Grammar  and  Arithmetic — and  to 
be  thoroughl}"  grounded  in  the  elements  of  the  Greek 
and  Latin  languages.  This  should,  in  all  cases,  be  the 
minimum  that  ^Yi\\  be  tolerated.  Whether  it  be  expe- 
dient, at  present,  to  demand  more,  must  dej^end  on  the 
state  of  our  schools  and  academies.  A  much  larger 
amount  of  mental  furniture  is  desirable,  whenever  it  can 
be  supplied — and  the  more  the  better.* 

in  a  series  of  essays  published,  last  spring,  in  the  Trenton  Emporium, 
over  the  signature  of  The  Hermit. 

*  A  leading  defect  in  the  American  system  of  education,  is  the  want 
of  good  preparatory  schools.  This  evil  is  felt  and  acknowledged,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  in  every  part  of  our  country.  Colleges  com- 
plain, and  with  abundant  reason,. that  very  few  of  their  pupils  come  to 
them  well  taught  even  in  the  few  elementary  Ijranches  which  their 
statutes  require  as  qualifications  for  admission.  I  should  be  within 
bounds,  were  I  to  affirm,  that,  during  my  connexion  with  one  of  our 
most  respectable  colleges,  not  one  youth  in  ten  entered  it  thoroughlv 
prepared.  It  cannot  be  supposed  that  the  grammar  scliools  are  on  a 
better  footing  in  the  Western  than  in  the  Middle  States.  The  truth 
is,  that  no  regular  efficient  system  has  as  yet  been  adopted  anywhere. 
This  matter  is  left  too  much  to  chance,  or  to  individual  enterprise. 

VOL.  r.  4 


50  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

II.  To  a  college  course  in  general,  and,  at  least,-  pro- 
spectively considered,  no  limits  can  be  assigned.  It  may 
comprehend  "every  branch  of  literature  and  science.    But 

Sufficient  encouragement  is  not  usually  given  to  classical  teachers  to 
render  their  profession  lucrative  and  honourable — so  as  to  command 
the  services  of  men  of  talents  and  learning.  Without  this  inducement, 
such  men  will  seldom  consent  to  teach  ;  except,  it  may  be,  for  a  season, 
as  a  matter  of  convenience  or  necessity,  and  as  the  means  of  rising  to 
some  other  and  better  occupation. 

In  England  there  are  several  hundreds  of  richly  endowed  grammar 
schools — the  head-masters  of  which  receive  a  much  larger  pecuniary 
compensation  than  the  Presidents  of  our  richest  colleges.  The  supe- 
riority of  her  scholarship  need  not  therefore  occasion  any  surprise.  The 
cause  is  obvious.  I  am  no  blind  admirer  of  the  English  school  system 
— unrivalled  as  it  has  ever  yet  been ;  nor  do  I  wish  to  see  it  introduced 
into  this  country  without  very  considerable  modifications.  Still,  we 
have  nothing  that  deserves  to  be  compared  with  it.  Nor  need  we 
expect  similar  excellence  until  merit  in  the  teacher  be  adequately 
rewarded. 

If  there  be  one  vocation  more  important  to  the  community  than  any 
other,  or  than  all  others,  it  is  that  of  the  instructer  of  youth.  And  yet 
it  is  regarded  and  treated,  in  many  places,  as  scarcely  above  contempt ; 
and  its  emoluments  barely  suffice  to  preserve  a  family  from  beggary. 
Physicians,  lawyers,  merchants,  farmers,  mechanics,  may  all  become 
rich  :  but  whoever  heard  of  a  schoolmaster's  making  a  fortune  by  his 
profession  in  our  country  ?  And  yet,  who  will  pretend  to  say  that  his 
profession  is  less  useful,  necessary  or  meritorious  than  any  other  in  the 
nation  ?  Why  then  should  it  be  less  profitable  or  less  respectable  ?  I 
fearlessly  put  the  question  to  any  man  of  liberal  feelings  and  sound  judg- 
ment ;  and  I  challenge  him  to  assign  even  a  plausible  pretext  for  thus 
degrading  a  teacher  to  the  level  of  a  drudge,  or  for  employing  none  but 
those  who  are  content  to  be  drudges,  and  who  are  fit  for  no  higher 
rank  in  society  ?  I  again  repeat,  regai'dless  of  all  prejudices  and  defy- 
ing all  rational  contradiction,  that,  in  a  Republic,  where  knowledge  is 
the  soul  of  liberty,  no  profession  ought  to  be  more  genei'ously  cherished, 
honoured  and  rewarded,  than  that  of  the  worthy  instructer  of  youth. 

Our  country  needs  seminaries  purposely  to  train  up  and  qualify  young 
men  for  the  profession  of  teaching.  Though  the  idea  perhaps  may  be 
novel  to  some  persons,  yet  tlie  propriety  and   importance  of  such  a 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  51 

in  reference  to  our  present  youth,  with  the  quahfications 
just  specified,  it  may  be  safely  assumed,  that  the  mathe- 
matics and  ancient  languages  will  furnish  employment 

provision  will  scarcely  be  questioned  by  any  competent  judges.  The 
Seminariwn  Philologicmn  of  the  late  celebrated  Heyne  at  Gottinj^en, 
though  a  private  institution  in  the  midst  of  a  great  university,  furnished 
to  the  continent  of  Europe,  during  a  period  of  nearly  half  a  century, 
many  of  its  most  eminent  and  successful  classical  professors  and  teach- 
ers. We  have  our  Theological  Seminaries — our  Medical  and  our  Law 
Schools — which  receive  the  graduates  of  our  colleges,  and  fit. them  for 
their  respective  professions.  And  whenever  the  profession  of  teaching 
shall  be  duly  honoured  and  appreciated,  it  is  not  doubted  but  that  it 
will  receive  similar  attention,  and  be  favoured  with  equal  advantages. 

At  present,  the  great  mass  of  our  teachers  are  mere  adventurers — 
either,  young  men,  who  are  looking  forward  to  some  less  laborious  and 
more  respectable  vocation,  and  who,  of  course,  have  no  ambition  to 
excel  in  the  business  of  teaching,  and  no  motive  to  exertion  but  imme- 
diate and  temporary  relief  from  pecuniary  embarrassment — or  men,  who 
despair  of  doing  better,  or  who  have  failed  in  other  pursuits — or  who 
are  wandering  from  place  to  place,  teaching  a  year  here  and  a  year 
there,  and  gathering  up  what  they  can  from  the  ignorance  and  credulity 
of  their  employers.  That  there  nre  many  worthy  exceptions  to  this 
sweeping  sentence,  is  cheerfully  admitted.  That  we  have  some  well 
qualified  and  most  deserving  instructers,  we  are  proud  to  acknowledge 
■ — and  as  large  a  proportion  probaljly  in  this  section  of  our  country  as 
in  the  older  States.  Still,  the  number  is  comparatively  small :  and  the 
whole  subject  demands  the  most  serious  attention  of  the  good  people  of 
this  community.  We  have  no  system — no  regularly  and  judiciously 
organized  schools  for  classical  instruction ;  where  the  teachers  feel 
themselves  comfortably,  honourably  and  permanently  established ;  and 
where  the  pupils  are  duly  trained  and  disciplined  as  candidates  for  the 
college  or  university.  We  have  taken  the  liberty  to  name  the  evil ;  and 
we  appeal  to  the  good  sense  of  the  public  with  confidence  that  the 
time  has  arrived  for  its  correction  or  removal.  Should  these  remarks 
meet  the  eye  of  any  faithful  instructer  in  this  vicinity,  he  will  regard 
them  as  proceeding  from  a  friend,  who  feels  for  his  situation,  who 
respects  his  office  and  character,  and  who  will  never  fail  to  afford  him 
all  the  countenance,  and  to  render  him  every  service  that  may  be  in  his 
power.      Every  such  man  deserves  well  of  his  country — and  is  more 


52  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

for  the  greater  portion  of  their  time  while  thej  remain 
under-graduates.  An  accurate  and  profound  acq-uaint- 
ance  with  these  is  essential  to  every  individual  who 
aspires  to  the  reputation  of  a  scholar.  And  neither  time 
nor  pains  ought  to  be  spared  to  ensure  such  proficiency 
to  all  our  pupils.     If  these  be  not  learned  at  school  or 


justly  entitled  to  her  lasting  gratitude  than  multitudes  of  those  whom 
she  most  delights  to  honour. 

In  consequence  of  the  unfortunate  state  of  our  schools  generally,  col- 
leges are  compelled  to  fix  their  standard  of  qualifications  for  admission 
so  low  as  necessarily  to  remain  themselves  but  grammar  schools  of  a 
rather  higher  order.  Had  we  schools  of  the  proper  character,  and  in 
sufficient  numbers,  then  might  our  colleges  become  in  fact  what  they 
assume  to  be  in  name.  Then  might  be  learned  in  the  former,  so  much 
of  the  classics  and  mathematics,  of  history,  chronology,  antic^uities  and 
other  branches,  as  that  a  college  would  be  a  fit  residence  for  young 
men,  and  its  liberal  pursuits  adapted  to  their  previous  attainments. 
Then  philosophy  and  science  and  elegant  literature  might  unfold  their 
richest  treasures  to  minds  prepared  to  receive  and  to  relish  them.  And, 
until  then,  we  must  be  content  to  pursue  the  humble  course  which  has 
been  already  marked  out. 

But  let  us  not  despair  of  ultimately  reaching  the  very  maximum  of 
our  wishes.  Let  us  commence  where  we  must — with  such  youth  as 
our  country  can  furnish.  Let  us  diligently  cultivate,  improve  and 
polish  the  materials  at  hand — in  the  best  manner  we  can.  Let  us  not 
seek  to  make  children  youth,  and  youth  men,  and  men  lawyers,  physi- 
cians, clergymen  or  politicians,  too  fast.  Let  us  keep  our  pupils  at 
their  proper  work — and  carry  them  as  far  as  they  can  safely  and  surely 
go,  and  no  further.  Better  teach  them  one  thing  well  than  twenty 
things  imperfectly.  Their  education  will  then  be  valuable  as  far  as  it 
extends.  Some  will  leave  us  able  and  willing  to  teach  others  upon  our 
own  plan.  Every  year,  perhaps,  we  may  advance  a  little — demand 
something  more  for  admission — and  that  something  in  better  style — 
send  forth  more  and  abler  instructers— in  return,  receive  still  more  ac- 
complished pupils — and  thus  proceed,  year  after  year,  slowly  but  surely, 
until  we  elevate  our  schools  and  our  college  to  a  rank  and  standing 
worthy  of  a  free,  enlightened  and  magnanimous  people. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  53 

college,  the  presumption  is  that  they  will  never  be 
learned  at  all.  AVhenever  these  are  mastered,  it  will 
be  comparatively  easy  for  the  inquisitive  and  studious 
youth  to  extend  his  researches  and  his  acquisitions  as 
for  as  he  pleases.  In  this  opinion  all  competent  judges 
concur;  although  popular  sentiment  may,  in  some  places, 
be  opposed  to  it. 

Of  the  value  of  mathematical  science,  on  many  ac- 
counts, there  may  be  no  question.  But  the  importance 
of  the  dead  languages  is  to  some  not  quite  so  obvious.  I 
am  well  aware  of  the  objections  usually  urged  against 
their  study — and  of  the  ridicule  with  Avhich  they  have 
been  assailed.  Still,  classical  learning  maintains  its 
ground ;  and  is  daily  acquiring  credit  even  in  our  own 
country.  It  is,  indeed,  so  interAvoven  Avith  the  very 
texture  of  modern  science,  literature  and  language,  that 
it  is  vain  to  expect  scholarship  without  it — and  equally 
vain  for  ignorance  or  prejudice  any  longer  to  denounce 
it.  I  mean  not  now  to  attempt  its  eulogy  or  to  point 
out  its  uses  and  advantages.  I  merely  affirm,  that  the 
classicks  must  be  studied — and  studied  until  the  mind 
be  richly  imbued  with  their  beauties,  and  the  taste  re- 
llned  by  their  influence.  At  school,  the  first  steps  only 
are  taken — the  mere  outworks  secured — while  at  college, 
the  pupil  advances  from  mere  verbal  and  grammatical 
and  metrical  attainments,  to  those  interior,  more  subtile, 
and  more  intellectual  stores  with  which  the  ancient  clas- 
sicks so  pre-eminently  abound.  The  labour,  or,  if  you 
please,  the  drudgery  of  drilling  boys  in  the  elements  of 
Greek  and  Latin,  belongs  to  the  schoolmaster.      To  the 


54  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Classical  Professor  pertains  the  higher  province  of  philo- 
logy and  criticism — not,  indeed,  to  the  neglect  of  the 
minutest  principles  of  grammar  and  prosody — ^iDut,  be- 
yond these,  he  ranges  over  a  larger  and  more  variegated 
field — and  inspired  with  the  genius  of  the  poets,  orators, 
historians  and  philosophers  of  the  olden  time,  he  Avill 
make  their  study  the  delight  of  his  pupils.  He  will  (to 
adopt  the  words  of  Milton)  insensibly  lead  them  up  the 
hill-side  of  classic  lore,  usually  indeed  laborious  and  diffi- 
cult at  the  first  ascent,  but  under  his  kindly  guidance 
and  skilful  illustrations,  will  appear  so  smooth,  so  green, 
so  full  of  goodly  prosj^ect  and  melodious  sounds  on 
every  side,  that  the  harp  of  Orpheus  could  not  be  more 
charming. 

It  is  desirable,  that,  in  a  college,  provision  should  be 
made  for  instruction  in  all  the  sciences  and  in  every  de- 
partment of  philosophy  and  literature.  To  the  ultimate 
attainment  of  this  desideratum  we  must  direct  our 
views.  We  hope  to  see  the  day,  or  that  our  successors 
will  see  it,  when,  in  Cumberland  College,  or  in  the 
University  of  Nashville,  shall  be  found  such  an  array 
of  able  professors — such  libraries  and  apparatus — such 
cabinets  of  curiosities  and  of  natural  histor}' — such  bo- 
tanical gardens,  astronomical  observatories,  and  chemical 
laboratories,  as  shall  ensure  to  the  student  every  advan- 
tage which  the  oldest  and  noblest  European  institutions 
can  boast.  So  that  no  branch  of  experimental  or  physi- 
cal, of  moral  or  political  science — or  of  ancient  or  modern 
languages  and  literature,  shall  be  neglected. 

Let  us  aim  at  perfection,  however  slowly  we  may  ad- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  55 

vance  towards  the  goal  of  our  wishes.  But  in  this  aim 
and  in  this  anticipation,  let  not  our  object  be  mistaken. 
We  do  not  look  forward  to  the  period  when  every  indi- 
vidual shall  study  everything  which  the  amplest  means 
of  instruction  may  place  at  his  option  or  within  his 
reach.  Far  from  it.  The  loftiest  genius  and  the  longest 
life  cannot  compass  the  whole  of  human  knowledge — 
nor,  indeed,  any  comparatively  large  amount  of  what  is 
attainable.  Much  less  can  we  expect  youths,  between 
the  ages  of  fifteen  and  twenty,  and  during  a  period  of 
four  years,  to  grasp  all  the  science  or  to  read  all  the 
books  which  a  w^ell-endowed  college  may  happen  to  pos- 
sess. Could  the  vast  intellectual  treasures  of  Oxford 
and  Paris  he  instantly  transferred  to  Nashville,  together 
with  all  the  living  spirits  which  animate  their  learned 
halls,  still  the .  mental  capacities  of  our  youth  would  re- 
main the  same  as  before,  and  would  require  a  similar 
discipline.  More  indeed  might  be  learned  in  a  given 
time,  because  more  facilities  for  the  purpose  would  be 
afforded  them.  And  here  w^e  perceive  an  obvious  and 
very  considerable  advantage  furnished  to  youth  thus 
eligibly  situated.  Their  minds  may  be  cultivated  to  the 
utmost  extent  of  their  ability  to  learn.  And  few  know 
how  much  a  child  or  youth  may  be  taught  by  a  judicious 
system,  which,  while  it  keeps  him  steadily  engaged  in 
some  great  department  of  solid  learning,  is  yet  able  to 
present  such  a  variety,  at  proper  intervals,  as  to  keep 
the  mind  ever  on  the  stretch  and  eager  after  knowdedge. 
Let  a  parent  make  the  experiment  with  his  son  of  ten 
years  old  for  a  single  week,  and  only  during  the  hours 


56  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

which  are  not  spent  in  school.  Let  him  make  a  com- 
panion of  his  child — converse  with  him  familiarly, — put 
to  him  questions — answer  inquiries — communicate  facts, 
the  results  of  his  reading  or  observation — awaken  his 
curiosity — explain  difficulties,  the  meaning  of  terms  and 
the  reasons  of  things — and  all  this  in  an  easy  playful 
manner,  without  seeming  to  impose  a  task — and  he  will 
himself  be  astonished  at  the  progress  which  will  be 
made.  So  in  a  college,  if,  besides  the  regular  daily 
routine  of  close  and  dihgent  application  to  severer  stu- 
dies, provision  be  made  for  easy  access  to  any  species  of 
information  at  all  times,  much  will  be  gathered,  without 
in  the  least  diminishing  the  amount  of  more  solid  attain- 
ments. The  pupils  will  breathe  a  literary  atmosphere. 
They  will  be  encompassed  with  the  means  and  incen- 
tives to  every  kmd  of  mental  effort.  They  will  be  in 
the  midst  of  a  learned  society — and  every  hint  they 
receive  may  be  improved.  Books,  lectures  and  ex- 
periments may  be  read,  heard  or  witnessed — even  on 
subjects  which  they  cannot  thoroughly  investigate; 
from  which,  nevertheless,  much  that  is  useful  may  be 
acquired.  It  is  worth  while  to  know  the  elements — the 
extent  and  general  nature  of  the  sciences — and  to  form 
such  an  acquaintance  with  books,  as  to  be  able  to  esti- 
mate their  intrinsic  and  relative  value.  Thus  circum- 
stanced, they  will  acquire  liberal  and  enlarged  views 
and  feelings.  Their  horizon  will  be  extended  fiir  be- 
yond ordinary  limits.  They  will  direct  their  future 
endeavours  towards  a  more  elevated  standard  and  rank 
of  scholarship  than  they  would  otherwise  have  dreamt 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  57 

of.  The  mighty  dead  with  whose  character  and  works 
they  have  been  conversant;  and  the  living  who  have 
directed  their  youthfid  pursuits,  will  be  in  their  eye,  and 
stimulate  them  to  many  a  noble  effort,  long  after  they 
bid  adieu  to  the  walls  of  Alma  Hater. 

But  here  too  are  dangers  to  be  avoided.  There  is  a 
fashion,  already  prevalent  in  some  of  our  colleges,  to 
attempt  to  teach  their  pupils  everything.  To  hurry 
them  from  book  to  book — and  from  science  to  science — 
with  such  rapidity  as  rather  to  confuse  the  youthful 
mind  by  its  variety,  than  to  enrich  it  with  its  abun- 
dance. The  rage  often  is  to  attend  the  greatest  number 
of  lectures,  not  to  master  the  subjects  of  any — to  hear 
and  to  see,  rather  than  to  study.  We  have  only  to  cast 
an  eye  over  the  course  prescribed  in  many  institutions 
to  be  convinced  that  no  more,  at  best,  than  a  smattering 
of  the  whole  can  possibly  be  acquired.  By  aiming  at 
impossibilities  they  do  nothing  as  it  should  be  done. 
The  public  is  often  imposed  on  by  the  rich  bill  of  fare 
which  is  held  forth  ad  capiandum.  Parents,  allured  and 
deceived  by  a  long  list  of  hard  terms  which  they  do  not 
understand,  send  their  sons  to  seminaries  which  seem  to 
promise  most;  without  stopping  to  inquire,  or  being  able 
to  judge,  whether  the  promise  can  be  fulfilled.  They 
would  readily  appreciate  the  absurdity  of  any  pledge, 
from  however  respectable  a  source,  to  teach  their  sons 
some  dozen  or  score  of  mechanical  trades  within  the 
short  space  of  four  years. 

But  there  is  a  still  more  grievous  evil  attendant  on 
this  desultory  system.     A  superficial  course  of  reading 


58  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

has  an  obvious  tendency  to  engender  vanity  and  self- 
sufficiency.  Youth  are  fond  of  no^-elty  and  var-ietj^ — 
and  rigid  aiDplication  to  any  apparently  dry  and  difficult 
science  or  subject  is  readily  dispensed  with  for  the  plea- 
sures and  eclat  of  universal  knowledge.  General  reading 
becomes  the  order  of  the  day — and  those  who  read  most, 
and  can  talk  about  the  greatest  number  of  books,  bear 
away  the  palm  from  the  dull  ploddiiuj  student  who  may 
chance  to  find  in  Euclid  or  Demosthenes  full  employ- 
ment for  his  time  and  faculties.  Against  such  a  fashion 
or  such  a  system,  and  against  any  the  least  tendency 
towards  it,  I  beg  leave,  once  for  all,  to  enter  my  solemn 
protest.  It  is  ruinous  to  all  scholarship  —  and  never 
forms  humble,  modest,  useful  citizens. 

The  grand  aim  of  a  college  education,  besides  the  solid 
basis  for  a  future  superstructure,  and  besides  the  inci- 
dental advantages  to  which  I  have  adverted,  ought  ever 
to  be,  to  impart  quickness  in  investigation  and  patience 
in  research — to  give  the  power  of  grappling  with  difficul- 
ties, accuracy  of  thought,  and  clearness  of  reasoning — 
to  form  the  judginent  —  to  refine  the  taste — to  instil 
delicacy  of  feeling,  and  a  vivid  percejition  of  poetical 
beauty  and  moral  excellence — in  a  word,  to  develop 
faculty,  and  to  subject  it  to  such  training  and  discipline 
as  will  ensure  its  future  growth  to  manly  vigour  and 
maturity. 

Why  then  should  we  desire  teachers  in  a  college  for 
more  branches  than  the  pupils  can  learn?  If  I  have 
been  happy  enough  to  exhil^it  my  views  fairly,  I  have 
already  assigned  good  and  sufficient  reasons  for  such  a 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  59 

provision,  so  far  as  it  has  a  bearing  on  the  reguhir  stu- 
dents during  the  appointed  period  of  a  college  residence. 
But  we  look  further— we  contemplate  a  system  adapted 
to  the  wants  and  pursuits  of  men  after  graduation.  And 
here  appears  its  paramount  advantage.  Our  own  alumni 
may  remain  here,  or  strangers  from  other  institutions 
may  come  hither,  to  prosecute  their  studies  to  any  ex- 
tent desirable  —  to  master  any  particular  science  tho- 
roughly— to  expatiate  more  largely  over  classick  ground 

and  to  avail  themselves  of  any  aid  or  benefit  which 

such  an  establishment  can  afford  them.  There  are 
various  other  ways  also  in  which  the  community  would 
be  directly  or  indirectly  benefited.  A  large  body  of 
learned  men  might  here  be  cherished,  who,  if  leisure 
were  allowed  them,  might  extend  the  boundaries  of 
science,  and  add  to  the  elegant  'and  useful  literature  of 
the  world.  We  might,  in  time,  boast  of  our  Linnoeus, 
our  Porson,  our  Heyne,  our  Newton,  our  La  Place,  our 
Stewart,  our  Cullen,  our  Blackstone,  our  Robertson,  our 

Blair,   our  Paley,  our but  there  is  no  end  to  the 

catalogue — and  no  limit  to  the  advantages  which  may 
result  to  individuals  and  the  State  from  our  university 
when  liberally  organized  and  endowed. 

In  the  mean  time,  we  are  prepared  to  carry  our  pupils 
as  far  as  their  previous  attainments  will  enable  them  to 
advance — and  as  far  as  they  could  advance  in  any  col- 
lege in  our  country. 

III.  On  the  subject  of  government  it  becomes  me  to 
say  but  little  and  to  promise  nothing.  Those  who  have 
had  most  experience  in  the  management  of  youth,  know 


GO  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

full  well  the  difficulties  which  it  involves,  and  can  best 
sympathize  with  their  fellow-labourers  in  this  important 
concern.  So  much  depends  on  the  previous  training  of 
youth  while  under  the  parental  roof — on  the  sentiments 
there  imbibed  and  the  habits  acquired  —  so  much  on 
public  opinion,  both  in  the  particular  place  where  a  col- 
lege is  situated  and  in  the  community  at  large — so  much 
on  those  who  have  the  supreme  direction  and  control  of 
its  interests — that,  it  is  not  easy  to  mark  out  the  course 
to  be  pursued  by  a  faculty,  prior  to  any  experience,  in 
circumstances  which  to  them  may  be  entirely  novel. 
In  general,  it  may  be  remarked,  that  the  government 
of  a  college  ought  to  be,  as  far  as  practicable,  strictly 
parental.  Every  instructor  ought  to  conduct  towards 
his  pupils,  and  to  be  esteemed  by  them,  as  a  father  or 
elder  brother.  They  o\ight  to  regard  him  as  their  best 
friend,  and  to  confide  in  him  as  such.  Wherever  tins 
mutual  confidence  and  afiectionate  intercourse  do  not 
obtain,  the  connexion  will  neither  be  happy  nor  bene- 
ficial. 

In  a  college,  established  upon  the  ordinary  plan,  the 
youth  are  necessarily  left  much  to  themselves.  They 
constitute  a  large  familj-,  or  a  small  community — have 
their  laws,  rules,  usages,  rights  and  privileges — are 
dealt  with,  not  as  children,  but  as  young  gentlemen — 
the  sanctions  of  authority,  the  rewards  and  penalties  are 
all  addressed  to  the  sense  of  duty,  of  honour  and  shame. 
If  they  cannot  be  sufficiently  controlled  upon  these  prin- 
ciples, or  restrained  by  moral  and  religious  considera- 
tions,  there   remains  no   alternative  but  temporary  or 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  61 

absolute  and  final  dismission  from  the  institution.  How 
much  therefore  depends  upon  the  prudent,  judicious, 
temperate,  vigilant,  mild,  firm,  equitable  and  faithful 
administration  of  its  government  may  readily  be 
imagined.  On  this  subject  it  is  much  easier  to  specu- 
late wisely  than  to  execute  skilfully.  Some  men  may 
entertain  the  best  theory  in  the  world,  and  yet  be 
utterly  unfit  for  practical  service.  They  may  talk 
sensibl}^  enough — prescribe  well — and  resolve  how  to 
act  in  any  given  or  supposable  emergency — but  when 
the  trying  crisis  arrives  they  know  not  how  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  peculiar  features  and  circumstances  of 
the  case,  or  when  to  seize  upon  the  favourable  moment 
for  prompt  decision — or  how  to  gain  access  to  the  heart 
and  understanding,  or  in  what  direction  to  turn  the 
popular  current — or  whether  to  exercise  extraordinary^ 
lenity  or  extraordinary  severit3\  The}^  have  not  the 
presence  of  mind — that  complete  self-possession — that 
instantaneous  and  intuitive  perception  of  what  is  proper 
and  expedient — which  alone  can  command  and  ensure 
success.  They  are,  in  a  word,  destitute  of  that  natural 
tact — thr.t  instinctive  sensibility  to  every  expression  of 
the  countenance,  and  to  every  symptom  which  a  word, 
a  look  or  a  movement  may  indicate — and  which,  though 
no  art,  is  superior  to  all  art,  and  can  never  be  learned 
in  any  school.  All  the  avenues  to  the  human  heart — 
all  the  springs  of  youthful  action,  and  all  the  modes  of 
allaying  and  regulating  youthful  passion,  must  be  so 
obvious  and  familiar,  that  a  man  may  be  said,  at  the  in- 
stant, rather  to  feel  his  way  than  to  study  or  devise  it. 


62  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

The  government  of  a  college  differs  so  widely  from  a 
military  or  civil  government,  that  little  aid  or  illustra- 
tion can  be  borrowed  from  either.  A  General  would  find 
it  easier  to  maintain  strict  discij)line  in  an  army — and 
his  Excellency  to  administer  the  laws  of  a  State- — than 
either  to  govern  a  college.  And  although  it  be  nearly 
allied  to  the  parental,  as  has  been  stated,  still  the 
government  of  a  family  is  but  an  epitome,  or  remote 
resemblance  of  that  which  obtains  in  a  college — where 
a  hundred  or  more  youths  are  assembled  from  every 
quarter,  and  possessing  every  variety  of  character. 

The  characteristic  vice  of  the  present  age  is  impatience 
of  control.  It  is  manifested  everywhere— and  in  regard 
to  almost  every  species  of  government  from  the  domestic 
to  the  imperial.  The  spirit  of  insubordination — of  inde- 
pendence— of  freedom  from  restraint — of  superiority  or 
indifference  to  all  authority — is  cherished  from  infancy 
to  manhood — and  no  very  plausible  occasion  for  its  dis- 
play is  suffered  to  pass  unimproved.  Towards  teachers, 
especially,  it  assumes  a  more  than  ordinary  virulence, 
in  consequence  of  the  very  absurd  and  erroneous  senti- 
ments which  are  prevalent  concerning  their  character 
and  office.  They  are  commonly  regarded  as  petty 
tyrants — as  the  abridgers  of  youthful  pleasure — as  un- 
feeling, little-minded,  arbitrary  pedants,  who  delight  in 
imposing  unreasonable  burdens,  and  in  inflicting  unde- 
served punishment.  This  illiberal  prejudice  is  often 
entertained  by  the  parents  as  well  as  by  their  children. 
The  latter  frequently  imljibe  it  from  the  former.  It  is 
deeply  rooted  in  the  public  mind,  to  the  serious  injury 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  63 

even  of  the  best  regulated  seminaries  in  our  country. 
Its  noxious  fruits  are  more  or  less  visible  among  all  ages 
and  descriptions  of  pupils  wherever  assembled  and  by 
whomsoever  instructed. 

Youth,  therefore,  not  unfrequently  come  to  college, 
after  having  fought  their  way  through  the  preparatory 
schools,  and  acquired  a  reasonable  share  of  adroitness  in 
evading  law  and  in  plaguAinj  their  teachers — anticipating 
a  system  of  vigilant  espionage  and  rigorous  discipline — 
and  fully  prepared  from  the  first  to  regard  the  faculty 
as  their  enemies.  They  form  a  party  by  themselves — 
a  distinct  interest  of  their  own — view  with  suspicion 
every  measure  or  movement  of  the  faculty — and  resolve 
to  contravene  and  to  thwart  their  plans  as  far  as  it  may 
be  in  their  power.  The  evils  and  miseries  of  such  a  state 
of  things  are  too  palpable  to  need  naming. 

\Yliy  should  it  exist  a  single  moment  in  any  institu- 
tion ?  Is  it  a  natural  order  ?  Does  it  necessarily  result 
from  the  connexion  ?  No  :  it  is"  unnatural — contrary  to 
all  good  feeling  and  right  principle.  College  officers,  of 
the  proper  spirit  and  temper,  (and  no  others  ought  to  be 
employed,)  will  ever  find  their  own  happiness  in  render- 
ing their  pupils  intelligent,  virtuous  and  happy.  This 
too  is  their  interest.  It  is  their  pecuniary  interest  to 
promote  the  welfare  of  their  pupils  to  the  utmost  of  their 
ability.  How  powerful  a  motive  this  may  be  to  stimu- 
late their  efforts,  can  be  duly  estimated  by  all  money- 
making  and  monej'-loving  men  in  the  nation.  Their 
interest,  their  duty,  and  their  happiness,  combine  to 
inspire  them  with  every  tender  sentiment  towards  the 


64  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

youth  under  their  care,  and  with  every  disposition, 
desire  and  endeavour  to  make  them  comfortable,  con- 
tented, cheerful — at  the  same  time  that  they  solicitously 
guard  them  from  error  and  vice,  and  seek  to  imbue  their 
minds  richly  with  manly  and  useful  science. 

The  prejudice,  then,  which  exists  against  them,  is 
groundless,  ungenerous  and  cruel.  It  would  be  ridicu- 
lous and  foolish  for  any  set  of  teachers  to  study  to 
render  themselves  odious  to  their  pupils  and  to  the 
public — or,  in  other  words,  to  make  themselves  un- 
happy, and  their  occupation  unprofitable.  But  the  true 
secret  of  their  unpopularity  wdth  the  j-outh  of  their 
charge,  may  generally  be  traced  to  their  conscientious 
fidelity.  They  seek  to  render  them  happy,  not  by  in- 
dulging their  propensity  to  idleness  and  dissipation,  but 
by  prompting  them  to  industry,  and  by  restraining  them 
from  pernicious  indulgences. 

"Omnis  disciplina  gravis  est  puero." 

Hence  the  opposition  and  the  loud  clamour  against  them 
which  we  so  often  witness.  Let  parents  then — let  trus- 
tees— let  the  public  beware  how  they  countenance  and 
encourage  this  wicked  spirit  which  would  free  itself  from 
all  wholesome  control — and  which,  if  suffered  to  gain  the 
ascendency,  would  convert  any  seminary  into  a  sink  of 
iniquity  and  abomination.  Uphold  and  fortify,  by  every 
means  in  your  power  the  dignitj'  and  authority  of  those 
to  whom  you  entrust  the  dearest  interests  of  your  chil- 
dren ;  or  3'ou  will  yourselves  speedily  reap  the  bitter 
fruits  of  your  own  imprudence  and  folly.     No  efficient 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  65 

college  discipline  can  long  be  maintained  where  the  voice 
of  the  public  is  against  it.  None  where  parents  and 
friends  denounce  and  counteract  it.  I  fain  would  hope, 
that,  in  me  and  my  worthy  colleagues,  every  well-dis- 
posed youth,  who  becomes  a  member  of  this  college,  will 
recognise  his  warmest,  most  devoted  and  affectionate 
friends.  If  so,  happy  for  them,  and  happy  for  us,  will 
be  the  connexion  which  is  about  to  subsist.  It  shall  be 
our  study  to  deserve  their  confidence,  by  steadily  and 
assiduously  promoting  their  improvement  and  their  wel- 
fare to  the  best  of  our  humble  ability. 

Lastly.  In  entering  upon  an  enterprise  so  infinitely 
momentous — in  giving  renewed  existence  and  permanent 
character  to  an  institution  destined  to  afiect  the  dearest 
interests  of  this  community  to  the  latest  generations — it 
becomes  us  to  take  every  step  w^ith  the  greatest  possible 
circumspection,  and  with  a  solemn  sense  of  the  high 
responsibility  under  which  we  act.  It  is  with  unutter- 
able emotions  of  anxiety,  of  fear  and  trembUng,  that  I 
venture  upon  the  honourable  part  assigned  me  in  this 
great  work.  Especially,  when  I  recollect  what  this  in- 
stitution has  already  been,  under  the  masterly  guidance 
of  its  distinguished  founders,  the  indefatigable  labours 
of  its  first  most  worthy  instructors,  and  the  faithful 
administration  of  its  late  lamented  President,  whose 
eminent  talents,  learning  and  virtues  will  long  be  the 
proud  theme  of  grateful  panegyric  in  these  consecrated 
halls — and  whose  memory  is  embalmed  in  the  hearts  of 
his  affectionate  and  accomplished  pupils. 

When  I  consider  the  value  of  a  single  individual  in 


66  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

reference  to  this  life — and  still  more  in  reference  to  a 
future  world — and  that  his  character  and  his  destiny 
may  be  fixed  forever  in  this  seminary — I  involuntarily 
shrink  from  the  awful  charge.  What  then  must  be  the 
sensation  created  by  the  contemplation  of  the  hundreds 
and  the  thousands  who  will  here  imbibe  those  principles, 
and  acquire  those  habits,  which  must  render  them  bless- 
ings or  curses  to  themselves  and  to  the  world  ?  Who 
is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?  No  unassisted  mortal 
assuredly.  To  God  we  must  humbly  and  devoutly  look 
— to  the  infinite  Fountain  of  grace  and  wisdom  I  must 
continually  look — to  the  Eternal  Giver  of  every  good 
and  perfect  gift  we  must  all  look  for  that  support  and 
direction  which  we  so  eminently  need. 

May  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God  rest  upon  this  in- 
fant establishment,  and  crown  all  our  exertions  in  its 
behalf  with  success — that  we  may  ever  have  abundant 
reason  to  remember  this  day  with  joy  and  gratitude — 
and  be  encouraged  to  still  greater  zeal  and  activity  in 
the  cause  which  we  have  begun  to  espouse  under  aus- 
pices so  favourable  and  promising ! 


THE 


CAUSE    OF    EDUCATION 

IK  TENNESSEE. 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS, 

AT   CUMBERLAND   COLLEGE,  182G. 


Young  Gentlemen  : 

Your  academical  career  is  now  ended ;  and  you  have 
just  received  the  usual  honours  and  testimonials  of  this 
institution.  According  to  the  opinion  which  too  gene- 
rally prevails,  you  have  completed  your  studies.  This, 
I  am  persuaded,  is  not  your  own  opinion.  You  have 
already  made  a  juster  estimate  of  your  own  attainments  ; 
and  of  the  vast  and  variegated  field  for  future  investiga- 
tion which  still  lies  before  you,  and  which  invites  your 
assiduous  cultivation.  If  you  have  learned  Jww  to  study, 
and  have  acquired  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  you  will  con- 
tinue to  study  and  to  learn  while  you  live.  This,  in- 
deed, is  the  grand  aim  and  object  of  all  elementary 
education.  It  is  to  discipline  the  mind,  to  develop 
faculty,  to  mature  the  judgment,  to  refine  the  taste,  to 
chasten  the  moral  sense,  to  awaken  and  invigorate  in- 
tellectual energy;  and  to  furnish  the  requisite  mate- 
rials upon  which  to  erect  the  noblest  superstructure. 
Hitherto,  you  have  been  laying  the  foundation;  and 
serving  that  kind  of  apprenticeship  which  may  enable 

you  to  march  forward  by  your  own  diligent  and  perse- 

69 


70  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

vering  eiforts.  Do  not  imagine,  therefore,  that  your 
work  is  done.  You  have  only  commenced  your  studies. 
Whatever  may  be  your  future  profession,  jDursuit,  busi- 
ness or  destination,  let  books,  science,  literature  be  your 
constant  companions. 

Every  man,  who  intends  to  do  the  greatest  possible 
good  in  his  day  and  generation,  will,  every  day,  seek  to 
acquire  additional  information.  He  will  gather  it  from 
every  source  within  his  reach.  His  experience,  his  ob- 
servation, his  intercourse  with  the  world,  with  men  and 
things,  his  daily  occupations,  his  incidental  associations, 
the  great  volume  of  nature,  ever  open  and  spread  out  to 
his  view,  the  intellectual  treasures  of  a  hundred  genera- 
tions which  have  passed  away,  the  records  of  heavenly 
truth  and  wisdom  —  all  will  conspire  to  increase  his 
stores,  and  to  qualify  him  for  a  greater  and  a  wider 
sphere  of  useful  and  virtuous  exertion. 

All  the  great  and  good  men,  who  have  enlightened, 
adorned  and  purified  the  world  by  their  labours  and 
their  counsels,  have  been  indefatigable  in  the  pursuit  of 
knowledge,  up  to  the  last  moment  of  their  existence. 
No  matter  how  exalted  any  man's  genius  may  be — 
history  demonstrates,  that,  genius  has  never  achieved 
great  things  without  industry. 

The  lawyer,  physician  or  divine,  who  limits  his  range 
of  thought  and  study  to  the  mere  mechanical  rules,  or 
precedents,  or  forms,  or  prescriptions  of  his  professional 
rubrick,  will  never  become  eminent  in  his  own  particu- 
lar profession,  nor  will  he  ever  be  distinguished  as  a 
man.     He  may  pass  along  with  tolerable  respectability, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  71 

countenanced  by  the  multitude  of  Lis  brethren  who  are 
like  himself,  among  a  people  not  wise  enough  to  distin- 
guish noise  from  sense,  or  technical  jargon  and  pedantry 
from  learning  and  argument.  But  bring  him  into  the 
presence  of  the  master-spirits  of  the  land  or  of  the  age, 
and  he  instantly  shrinks  into  his  native  insignificance. 
Mere  professional  business  of  any  kind,  when  a  man 
never  makes  an  excursion  or  voyage  of  discovery  be- 
yond it,  always  tends  to  narrow  and  contract  the  mind. 
He  may  be  expert  in  small  things,  in  petty  official  de- 
tails, like  an  artisan  in  his  workshop ;  but  take  him  out 
of  his  dail}'  routine,  from  off  the  beaten  track,  and  he  is 
bewildered  and  confused,  or  opinionated,  obstinate  and 
illiberal.  He  cannot  grasp  a  great  subject,  or  compre- 
hend a  new  moral  theorem  or  proposition.  He  will  dis- 
cuss the  interests  of  an  empire  as  he  w^ould  treat  the 
cause  of  a  client,  or  the  case  of  a  patient,  or  a  point  in 
theology.  Now  all  these  may  be  important  matters; 
and  so  is  the  manufacture  of  a  nail  and  of  a  pin.  But  a 
man  of  intellect  ought  to  aspire  after  higher  objects,  and 
nobler  attainments,  and  more  expanded  views. 

In  England,  even  the  humblest  artificers  and  me- 
chanics, tradesmen  and  farmers,  in  almost  every  town, 
are  beginning  to  form  associations  for  mental  improve- 
ment. They  have  procured  libraries — they  read  literary 
and  scientific  journals — attend  lectures  on  chemistry, 
political  economy,  mechanics,  natural  philosophy,  his- 
tory, mathematics — they  study  and  converse  with  each 
other  at  every  spare  moment  or  leisure  hour.  In  a  few 
years,  they  will  take  the  lead  of  half  the  professional 


72  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

men  in  the  kingdom,  unless  the  latter  condescend  to 
follow  their  example.  A  similar  sj^irit  of  enterprise 
and  improvement  has  already  appeared  in  our  larger 
cities,  and  its  march  will  be  rapid,  and  its  effects  most 
salutary.  Our  youthful  candidates  for  the  learned  pro- 
fessions, therefore,  must  prepare  to  enter  the  lists  of 
honourable  competition  with  a  new  and  vigorous  race  of 
rival  combatants  for  the  prize  of  intellectual  supremacy. 
I  know  not  what  are  to  be  your  future  professions  or 
occupations.  Every  honest  calling  ought  to  be  esteemed 
honourable.  I  address  you  as  moral  and  intellectual  be- 
ings— as  the  patriot  citizens  of  a  great  Republic.  You 
may  be  merchants,  mechanics,  farmers,  manufacturers — 
and  yet  be  eminent^  distinguished  and  eminently  use- 
ful, if  you  will  persevere  in  seeking  after  knowledge 
and  in  making  a  proper  use  of  it.  The  Medici — Necker 
— Ricardo — were  merchants  or  bankers  :  Franklin  was 
a  mechanic :  Washington  was  a  farmer.  By  far  the 
greater  part  of  our  countrymen  are  and  must  be  farm- 
ers. They  must  be  educated;  or,  wdiat  is  the  same 
thing,  educated  men  must  become  farmers,  if  they  would 
maintain  their  just  influence  and  ascendency  in  the 
State.  I  cannot  wish  for  the  alumni  of  Cumberland 
College,  a  more  healthful,  independent,  useful,  virtuous, 
honourable,  patriotic  employment,  than  that  of  agricul- 
ture. Nor  is  there  any  condition  in  life  more  favour- 
able to  the  calm  pursuits  of  science,  philosophy  and 
religion ;  and  to  all  that  previous  training  which  ul- 
timately constitutes  wisdom  and  inflexible  integrity. 
Should  our  college  eventually  become  the   crand  nur- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  73 

sery  of  intelligent,  virtuous  fiinners,  I  shall  esteem  it 
the  most  highly  favoured  institution  in  our  country.  I 
have  long  thought  that  our  college  graduates  often 
mistake  their  true  path  to  honour  and  usefulness,  in 
making  choice  of  a  learned  profession,  instead  of  con- 
verting agriculture  into  a  learned  profession,  as  it  ought 
to  be,  and  thereby  obtaining  an  honest  livelihood  in  the 
tranquil  shades  of  the  country. 

I  mean  not,  however,  on  the  present  occasion,  to  offer 
any  advice  as  to  the  choice  of  a  profession.  Whatever 
station  you  may  occupy,  or  whatever  be  your  pursuits, 
never  cease  to  gain  knowledge  and  to  do  good,  as  God, 
in  his  providence,  shall  give  you  opportunity. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  as  you  have  yourselves  en- 
joyed superior  advantages  of  education,  it  is  reasonable 
to  expect  that  you  will  be  the  steady,  enlightened, 
zealous  friends  and  advocates  of  education,  in  every  de- 
gree, and  to  the  utmost  extent,  which  the  welfare  of  the 
community  may  require. 

I  present  to  your  patronage  and  support  the  grand 
cause  of  education,  in  all  its  purity  and  excellence,  and 
without  restriction  as  to  its  objects. 

That  learning  has  been  often  abused  and  perverted — 
that  many  systems  of  education  have  proved  ineffectual, 
useless  or  pernicious  —  that  most  existing  seminaries 
might  be  greatly  improved — I  freely  admit.  Still,  these 
admissions  detract  nothing  from  the  intrinsic  value  of 
knowledge,  nor  from  the  paramount  importance  of  edu- 
cation. The  native  character,  tendency  and  genuine 
effects  of  any  principle,  system  or  institution,  must  de- 


74  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

cide  its  utility,  and  its  claims  to  general  adoption  and 
support ;  and  not  the  j)artial  evils  which  human  artifice, 
or  folly,  or  wickedness  may  render  it  the  instrument  or 
the  occasion  of  introducing  and  propagating.  Under  the 
plea  and  sanction  of  religion  and  liberty,  our  world  has 
been  filled  with  tumult,  convulsion,  crime  and  suffering. 
Are  religion  and  liberty  therefore  worthless,  or  injurious 
to  mankind  ?  Would  3^ou  banish  religion  and  liberty 
from  the  earth,  because  both  religion  and  liberty  have 
been  most  grossly  profaned ;  and  employed,  in  ten  thou- 
sand ways,  to  deceive,  oppress,  and  degrade  mankind? 
Then  oppose  not — condemn  not  education.  The  want 
of  it  has  occasioned  most  of  the  misery  and  crime  which 
have  been  inflicted  on  our  world  under  the  specious 
names  and  imjDOsing  authority  of  religion  and  liberty. 
When  or  where  did  crafty  ecclesiastics  or  politicians 
ever  succeed,  under  the  guise  of  religion  or  liberty,  in 
cheating  the  people  out  of  both,  except  where  the  peo- 
ple w^ere  so  ignorant  that  they  could  comprehend  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  ?  Without  competent  knowledge, 
or  without  education,  there  can  be  neither  religion  nor 
liberty.  Religion  implies  knowledge.  Its  simplest  prin- 
ciples and  dictates — its  plainest  duties  and  requirements 
cannot  be  understood  or  performed,  without  previous  in- 
struction. This  is  true  of  every  religion  yet  known — 
and  of  every  religion  that  can  be  conceived — of  paganism 
and  theism — as  well  as  of  Christianity.  Nor  can  liberty 
be  appreciated,  acquired,  defended  or  maintained,  except 
by  those  who  have  learned  what  liberty  means.  If  reli- 
gion and  liberty,  therefore,  be,  in  any  degree,  desirable ; 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  75 

if  they  be  indispensable  to  the  happiness  and  perfection 
of  our  nature ;  if  they  be  justly  prized  above  all  other 
blessings  which  bountiful  Heaven  has  placed  within  the 
reach  of  the  human  family ;  then  is  the  cause  of  educa- 
tion sufficiently  established. 

By  education,  we  mean,  such  a  thorough  cultivation 
of  all  the -faculties  of  our  youth,  as  will  best  prepare 
them  for  the  greatest  usefulness  and  happiness.  Let 
this  definition  be  kept  in  view  during  the  whole  pro- 
gress of  our  argument  and  illustrations.  Those  of  my 
hearers  who  have  reflected  much  on  this  subject  will 
not  expect  any  benefit  or  information  from  the  discus- 
sion. They  will  patiently  bear  with  me,  however,  while 
I  endeavour,  in  a  plain  popular  way,  to  secure  the  good- 
will of  this  audience,  generally,  to  a  cause  which  may  be 
emphatically  styled  the  cause  of  the  people. 

Schools  or  Seminaries  of  education  may  be  classed  as 
follows :  namely, 

1.    Primary  or  Infant  Schools.     2.   Common  Schools. 

3.  Academies,    or   Classical    or    Intermediate    Schools. 

4.  Colleges  or  Universities.  5.  Special  or  Professional 
Schools:  Such  as  those  for  Law,  Divinity,  Medicine, 
Military  or  Naval  Science,  Agriculture,  Architecture,  or 
any  of  the  useful  or  liberal  arts. 

My  remarks  will  be  limited  chiefly  to  Common  Schools 
and  Colleges. 

But,  in  the  outset,  I  beg  leave  to  state  distinctly,  that, 
I  do  not  ascribe  omnipotence,  or  any  uncontrollable  sway 
to  education.  I  do  not  go  the  length  of  asserting  that 
man  is  absolutely  and  invincibly  the  creature  of  circum- 


76  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

stances  or  of  education.  That  he  may  be  made  an  angel 
or  a  devil,  or  something  between  both,  by  any  discip- 
line or  accidental  associations.  Still,  to  a  certain  extent, 
and  with  certain  qualifications,  this  is  true ;  and  it  is  a 
truth  of  revelation,  no  less  than  a  deduction  from  reason 
and  experience.  To  exhibit  at  once,  and  in  pretty  bold 
relief,  the  natural  province,  and  legitimate  power  of  edu- 
cation, I  refer  you  to  an  extreme  case  or  two,  and  to 
others  of  every  day's  occurrence.  Suppose  a  person  were 
to  grow  up,  from  infancy  to  manhood,  in  a  desert  or 
forest,  without  ever  seeing  a  human  being  or  hearing  a 
human  voice — in  what  respects  would  such  a  wild  man 
differ  from  other  wild  animals  ?  Would  he  speak,  or 
think,  or  reason,  or  discriminate  between  good  and  e\'il, 
virtue  and  vice,  happiness  and  misery?  Would  he  not 
resemble  the  bears  and  the  wolves  of  which  he  had  been 
the  nursling,  the  pupil  and  the  companion — and,  like 
them,  shun  the  presence  and  the  abodes  of  men  ?  Again, 
were  the  son  of  a  Solomon  or  a  Bacon  to  be  trained 
from  his  birth  among  savages — would  he  not  become  a 
savage  in  sentiment,  manners,  and  habits?  Indeed,  it 
requires  but  a  rapid  glance  at  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
to  perceive  that  the  great  mass  of  the  people  are  every- 
where formed  by  the  circumstances,  associations  and  in- 
struction to  which  they  are  subjected.  Where  these  are 
most  auspicious,  human  nature  assumes  its  most  attrac- 
tive and  dignified  character.  Where  these  are  most 
unfavourable,  human  nature  appears  in  its  most  abject 
and  degraded  form.  This,  as  a  general  truth  or  fact, 
none  will  dispute.      If  we  pass  from  the  ten  thousand 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  77 

varieties  of  national  character,  and  the  ten  thousand 
gradations  of  national  excellence  or  depravity,  to  indi- 
viduals of  the  most  enlightened  and  most  highly  favoured 
country  in  Christendom,  we  shall  behold  similar  effects 
continually  resultmg  from  similar  causes. 

It  requires  a  good  deal  of  patient  investigation  and 
minute  analysis  to  ascertain  how  much  of  good  and  evil 
may  be  instilled  into  the  mind  of  every  child,  by  the 
means  just  specified,  even  when  most  destitute  of  regular 
and  formal  education.  Thus,  a  child  could  never  learn 
to  speak,  or  to  utter  articulate  sounds,  without  instruc- 
tion ;  or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  without  an  opportunity 
of  imitating  others.  Yet  every  child,  not  destitute  of  the 
proper  organs  in  a  sound  state,  does  learn  to  speak,  and 
that,  too,  without  being  sent  to  school  for  the  purpose. 
Thus,  then,  the  first  and  most  important  of  all  arts  is 
insensibly  acquired  at  an  age  when  it  is  usually  thought 
superfluous  or  useless  to  commence  the  work  of  instruc- 
tion. Further,  of  the  many  hundreds  or  thousands  of 
dialects  actually  spoken  by  mankind,  the  child  always 
learns  the  language  of  its  parents  and  companions  :  and 
he  learns  it  more  or  less  perfectly  according  to  their 
habitual  use  of  it.  If  they  pronounce  it  correctly,  and 
speak  it  Avith  grammatical  accuracy,  purity  and  ele- 
gance, he  will  speak  it  agreeably  to  the  best  rules  of 
orthoepy,  grammar  and  rhetoric,  w^ithout  an  effort,  and 
previously  to  the  knowledge  of  any  rule  whatever.  In 
the  same  manner,  and  with  the  same  facilit}^,  a  child 
might  acquire  a  number  of  languages,  as  experience  has 
fully  demonstrated.     Now,  this  simple  fiict  proves,  first. 


78  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

that  mucli,  very  much  is  actually  learned  by  every  child 
in  infancj^ :  and  secondly,  that  the  amount  and  perfec- 
tion of  this  knowledge  depend  entirely  on  the  opportuni- 
ties and  advantages  possessed.  Were  we  to  extend  this 
analysis  to  other  particulars  or  departments ;  to  princi- 
ples and  habits,  moral,  economical,  physical,  intellectual, 
religious,  we  should  find  the  infant  mind  yielding  to  a 
daily  and  almost  invisible  influence,  which  may  mark  its 
character  and  destiny  through  life. 

How  important  then  to  human  happiness  is  it,  that, 
the  first  school — the  infant  school — the  parental  school 
— should  be  a  good  one  ?  Here  is  the  great  nursery  of 
human  weal  or  woe.  Now,  I  care  not  whether  children 
ever  go  to  a  public  school  or  not,  if  parents  will  keep  a 
better  school  at  home,  and  do  their  dut}'  to  their 
offspring.  I  care  not  whether  our  youth  go  to  college 
or  not,  if  parents  can  and  will  teach  them  more  efiec- 
tually  by  their  own  firesides.  But,  unfortunately,  the 
great  mass  of  parents  have  shown  themselves  but  sorry 
instructors  and  faithless  guides  to  those  who  ought  to 
be  dearer  to  them  than  their  own  life.  They  are  them- 
selves, in  general,  too  ignorant,  to  say  no  more,  to  do 
much.  Hence,  in  our  day.  Infant  Schools  have  been 
established  in  many  places,  to  supply  this  radical  de- 
fect. And  report  speaks  well  of  them  wherever  they 
have  been  tried.  How  far  it  maj^  be  practicable  or 
beneficial  to  introduce  them  into  our  country,  except 
in  large  towns  or  manufactories,  I  shall  not  stop  to 
inquire. 

In  order  to  furnish  the  community  at  large  with  the 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  79 

next  Lest  aid  to  parental  instruction,  and  as  a  substitute 
for  it,  after  the  first  period  of  infancy,  Common  Schools 
prefer  the  strongest  claims  to  our  regard.  We  hear  a 
great  deal,  at  the  present  day,  about  common  schools: 
and  one  would  imagine  that  they  had  already  become 
the  favourites  of  the  people.  If  so,  then  the  cause  of 
liberty  and  virtue  has  gained  much  in  our  land,  and  we 
need  not  despair  of  the  Republic.  Upon  this  ground  we 
can  all  meet  and  harmoniously  co-operate.  In  this 
grand  enterprise,  all  the  advocates  of  colleges  in  our 
country  will  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  humblest  of  the 
people,  not  merely  in  declaiming  about  the  necessity  and 
importance  of  common  schools,  but  in  organizing  and 
putting  into  practical  operation  the  best  system  that  can 
be  devised.  I  have  no  fears  that  any  of  the  alumni  of 
Cumberland  College  will  ever  prove  recreant  or  back- 
ward in  this  good  work. 

Common  Schools,  then,  are  needed  in  Tennessee.  How 
shall  they  be  established?  Let  the  people  decide.  What 
character  and  form  shall  they  assume  ?  Let  every  county 
be  divided  into  such  a  number  of  school  districts  or  de- 
partments as  will  conveniently  accommodate  all  the  in- 
habitants. Erect  comfortable  and  commodious  school- 
houses.  Attach  to  each  school-house  a  lot  of  ten  acres 
of  land,  for  the  purpose  of  healthful  exercise,  gardening, 
farming  and  the  mechanical  arts.  For  the  body  requires 
training  as  well  as  the  mind.  Besides,  as  multitudes 
must  live  by  manual  labour,  they  ought  betimes  to  ac- 
quire habits  of  industry,  economy,  temperance,  hardi- 
hood, muscular  strength,  skill  and  dexterity.     Employ 


80  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

teachers  qualified  to  govern  and  instruct  children  in  the 
best  possible  manner.  Pay  them  according  to  their 
merit.  Pay  any  sum  necessary  to  command  the  services 
of  the  best  and  most  accomplished  teachers.  Parsimony 
in  this  particular  is  not  only  impolitic ;  it  is  mean,  it  is 
absurd,  it  is  ruinous.  Better  have  no  teachers,  than  to 
have  incompetent,  immoral,  lazy,  passionate  or  indiscreet 
ones ;  however  cheaply  they  may  be  procured.  Their 
influence  will  not  be  merely  negative :  it  will  be  positive 
and  most  powerful.  I  have  often  looked  with  horror 
upon  the  kind  of  common  schools  and  teachers  to  which 
thousands  of  children,  during  several  of  their  best  years, 
are  cruelly  and  wantonly  subjected  in  the  older  States. 
But  it  is  or  was  the  fashion,  in  many  places,  to  hire  a 
blockhead  or  a  vagabond,  because  he  would  teach  a  child 
for  a  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  quarter !  Now,  if 
there  be  anything  on  earth  for  which  a  parent  ought  to 
feel  disposed  to  pay  liberally,  it  is  for  the  faithful  in- 
struction of  his  children.  Compared  with  this,  every 
other  interest  vanishes  like  chaff  before  the  wind — it  is 
less  than  nothing.  And  yet,  unless  the  world  has  sud- 
denly grown  much  wiser,  there  is  no  service  so  grudg- 
ingly and  so  pitifully  rewarded.  The  consequence  is 
what  might  have  been  expected.  Every  man  of  clever- 
ness and  ambition  will  turn  his  back  with  scorn  upon 
the  country  school.  He  will  become  a  lawyer,  a  physi- 
cian, a  merchant,  a  mechanic,  a  farmer,  or  a  farmer's 
overseer,  in  preference.  Until  school-keeping  be  made 
an  honourable  and  a  lucrative  profession,  suitable  teach- 
ers will  never  be  forthcoming  in  this  free  country. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  81 

But  what  is  meant  by  a  common  school  education  ? 
This  question  has  never  been  answered ;  and  it  cannot 
be  very  satisfactorily  answered.  Some  may  think  it 
enough  that  their  children  learn  to  read :  others  will 
insist  on  writing :  many  will  be  content  with  reading, 
writing  and  arithmetic.  Others  will  add  to  the  list, 
grammar,  geography,  history — perhaps,  practical  mathe- 
matics, physics,  astronomy,  mechanics,  rural  economy — 
with  several  other  branches  of  science  and  literature,  as 
ethics,  rhetoric,  political  economy,  geology,  chemistry, 
mineralogy,  botany: — in  short,  where  shall  the  limit  be 
fixed?  Who  shall  prescribe  the  boundaries  beyond 
which  a  common  school  education  shall  never  extend? 
It  is  evident,  upon  the  slightest  reflection,  that  the 
phrase  common  school  education  is  a  very  indefinite  one. 
How  far  beyond  the  alphabet  it  may  be  carried,  has 
never  been  ascertained.  Experiments  are  now  making 
in  Europe,  and  in  several  sections  of  our  own  country, 
which  are  calculated  to  give  a  totall}^  different  aspect  to 
this  w^hole  concern.  It  has  been  discovered  at  length, 
what  indeed  was  always  sufficiently  obvious,  that  a  boy 
need  not  be  kept  at  school  eight  or  ten  years  to  learn  to 
read  his  primer,  write  his  name,  cipher  to  the  rule  of 
three, — and  to  hate  books  and  learning  for  the  rest  of 
his  life.  It  has  been  discovered  that  boys  may,  in  three 
or  four  years,  be  taught  a  hundred-fold  more,  by  skilful 
teachers,  in  a  skilful  way,  than  their  fathers  ever  dreamt 
of  learning  at  all.  This  is  the  grandest  discovery  of 
our  age.     It  will  do  more  to  meliorate  tlfe  moral,  physi- 


82  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

cal  and  political  condition  of  mankind  generally,  than 
all  other  means  ever  yet  devised. 

The  excellence  and  the  extent  of  a  common  school 
education,  therefore,  will  ever  depend  on  the  qualifica- 
tions of  the  teacher  and  the  system  which  he  pursues. 
No  man  can  teach  more  than  he  knows  himself.  Every 
man  can  teach  all  that  he  does  know.  The  more  he 
knows,  the  more  useful  will  he  be.  In  the  humblest 
school  in  the  country,  he  will  find  some  pupils  to  be 
benefited  to  the  utmost  extent  of  his  ability  to  instruct 
them.  And  upon  the  Monitorial  or  Lancasterian  plan, 
he  can  teach  any  number. 

Let  us  then  speedily  have  common  or  elementary 
schools  so  abundant  and  so  wisely  conducted,  that, 
every  son  (I  say  nothing  now  of  the  daughters)  of  the 
commonwealth  may  be  well  and  amply  instructed.  Let 
him  acquire  a  taste  for  knowledge,  and  he  will  never 
cease  to  be  a  learner  Avliile  he  lives.  He  will  then  be 
fitted  for  usefulness  and  honour.  He  will  always  have 
resources  Avithin  himself.  He  will  be  conscious  that  he 
is  an  intellectual  being ;  and  that  intellectual  pleasures 
are  among  the  purest,  noblest  and  least  expensive  that 
can  be  enjoyed. 

But  we  must  not  stop  here.  Common  schools  are  not 
enough.  They  will  not  satisfy  the  public  necessities. 
The  better  and  more  efficient  the  common  schools  be- 
come, the  greater  will  be  the  demand  for  institutions  of 
a  higher  order.  Multitudes  of  aspiring  youth  will  pant 
for  more  intellectual  treasures.  They  will  loolc  out  for 
other  seats  of  learning  where   they  may  advance  still 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  83 

further.  Will  you  drive  them  to  neighbouring  or  distant 
States,  and  compel  them  to  expend  abroad  the  thousands 
of  dollars  which  sound  policy,  to  .say  no  more,  ought  to 
induce  you  to  keep  in  circulation  at  home  ?  You  must 
then  establish,  in  every  county,  one  or  more  first-rate 
Classical  Schools  or  Academies,  where  the  languages  and 
sciences  may  be  more  extensively  and  systematically 
taught.  Let  some  twenty  or  fifty  acres  of  land  be  at- 
tached to  each  of  these  seminaries,  for  the  same  purposes 
that  we  have  already  assigned  them  to  the  common 
schools.  Here  again  I  must  avoid  details.  Merely 
adding,  however,  that  all  this  will  not  be  sufficient. 
Learning  is  like  wealth; — the  more  we  get,  the  more 
we  covet.  No  laws  can  prescribe  the  limit  to  mental, 
any  more  than  to  pecuniary  acquisitions. 

We  must  have  one  or  more  colleges  to  receive  the 
numerous  candidates  for  the  highest  literary  honours 
and  attainments.  Our  sister  States  have  them :  and  if 
our  youth  cannot  be  accommodated  at  home,  they  will 
go  where  they  can  be  better  served.  Now,  a  great  Col- 
lege or  University  cannot  be  reared  except  at  a  great 
expense.  It  is  not  like  an  ordinary  school  or  academy, 
which  any  enterprising  individual,  with  moderate  re- 
sources, may  establish  anywhere.  The  aid  of  govern- 
ment— the  wealth  of  the  State — or  else  the  combined 
efforts  and  contributions  of  many  liberal  individuals — 
will  be  necessary  to  build  up  a  college.  Upon  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia  above  half  a  million  of  dollars  were 
expended  before  a  pupil  was  admitted :  and  fifteen 
thousand   dollars  have  been  appropriated  annually  for- 


84  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

ever  to  the  support  of  Professors.  And  this  was.  the 
work  of  the  people's  long  tried  champion  and  greatest 
favourite — the  very  oracle  of  orthodox  republicanism — 
the  immortal  author  of  the  Declaration  of  our  National 
Independence. 

I  do  not  say  that  Tennessee  should  forthwith  vote 
half  a  million  of  dollars,  or  any  other  sum,  to  a  college. 
But  she  ought  to  make  ample  provision  for  the  intel- 
lectual wants  of  her  citizens.  And  she  is  able  to  do 
this,  cost  what  it  may.  Were  a  judicious  system  of 
common  schools  and  academies  put  into  operation  imme- 
diately :  within  half  a  dozen  years,  there  would  be  five 
hundred  youths  in  West  Tennessee  alone,  eager  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  benefits  of  a  college.  And  should 
there  be  no  college  in  West  Tennessee,  adapted  to  their 
wants  and  wishes,  they  will  cross  the  Mountains  or  the 
Ocean  in  search  of  knowledge,  and  carry  along  with 
them  from  two  to  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
as  a  tribute  to  the  superior  wisdom  and  intelligence  of 
distant  or  foreign  States.  Thus,  in  a  single  year,  might 
be  withdrawn  from  the  State  more  money  than  would 
suffice  to  create  a  Cambridge  at  our  very  doors.  This  is 
a  consideration  which  every  political  economist  ought  to 
appreciate,  and  which  the  legal  guardians  of  the  people's 
welfare  and  prosperity  ought  gravely  to  ponder.  It  is 
assuredly  no  light  evil  to  any  community,  when  capital 
or  income  shall  seek  a  foreign  market  without  producing 
an  equivalent  return.  Every  dollar  thus  forced  away  is 
a  dollar  lost  to  the  State. 

I  am  well  aware  of  the  popular  prejudices  and  appre- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  85 

hciisions  which  are  cherished  in  regard  to  colleges  and 
college  graduates.  I  know  that  they  are  frequently  re- 
presented as  the  enemies  of  general  improvement — as 
having  no  sympathy,  or  community  of  feeling  or  interest 
with  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  That  they  consti- 
tute a  class  or  party  by  themselves,  and  that  they  ought 
to  be  viewed  with  jealousy  and  suspicion  by  all  the  vigi- 
lant patriotic  guardians  of  our  liberties.  If  there  has 
ever  been  any  plausible  pretext  for  such  an  opinion,  it 
certainly  exists  not  in  our  country.  I  have  never  yet 
heard  of  one  liberally  educated  American  who  was  not  a 
decided  friend  to  every  well-devised  plan  and  measure 
calculated  to  diffuse  the  blessings  of  knowledge  univer- 
sally. He  is  from  experience,  from  conviction,  from 
principle,  from  patriotism,  from  philanthropy,  the  firm, 
persevering  and  zealous  advocate  and  promoter  of  educa- 
tion among  the  people.  He  ardently  desires  that  every 
son  and  daughter  of  the  Republic  may  be  well  educated. 
And  that  his  deeds  have  nobly  corresponded  with  his 
professions,  let  facts  speak  for  themselves.  This  is  logic 
not  easily  to  be  encountered. 

And  if  there  be  any  friends  of  popular  instruction,  of 
liberty  and  the  rights  of  man,  in  the  old  world,  they  are 
to  be  found  exclusively  among  the  best  educated.  The 
demolition  of  despotism  in  France,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  a  free  representative  government  in  its  stead, 
were  first  thought  of,  canvassed  and  attempted  by  the 
most  enlightened  men  in  the  kingdom :  and  long  before 
the  ignorant  millions  of  that  ill-fated  country  had  ever 
heard  the  name  of  liberty.    And  it  was  precisely  because 


86  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

the  millions  could  not  comprehend  its  import,  much,  less 
appreciate  its  value,  that,  Avhen  once  excited,  th,ey  be- 
came ungovernable,  furious,  brutal,  ferocious :  and  the 
consequences  need  no  recital  or  comment.  Had  the 
people,  however,  been  previously  instructed  in  the  first 
elements  of  letters  and  politics ;  had  they  learned  how 
to  reflect,  to  reason  and  to  judge,  a  very  different  result 
would  have  been  witnessed.  Similar  attempts  have 
been  made,  by  a  few  enlightened  patriots  in  other  parts 
of  Europe,  to  meliorate  the  political  condition  of  the 
people,  which,  from  a  similar  cause,  have  proved  equally 
abortive. 

From  the  Colleges  and  Universities  of  Europe  have 
emanated  those  rays  of  light  which  have  caused  despots 
to  tremble  on  their  thrones.  And,  at  this  day,  those 
great  nurseries  of  truth  and  liberty  are  more  dreaded  by 
the  emperors,  kings  and  princes  of  Russia,  Austria,  Prus- 
sia and  Germany,  than  any  and  all  other  enemies  put 
together.  Hence  the  rigid  system  of  police  and  jealous 
espionage  exercised  towards  them.  Strange  that  repub- 
licans should  represent  colleges  as  hostile  to  liberty, 
when  tyrants  persecute  them  because  they  are  friendly 
to  liberty.  Youth  cannot  long  be  familiar  with  the  his- 
tory and  institutions  of  Greece  and  Rome,  without  im- 
bibing something  of  that  enthusiasm  for  liberty  which 
inspired  a  Demosthenes,  an  Epaminondas,  a  Phocion,  a 
Cicero,  a  Brutus  and  a  Cato.  By  the  way,  the  friends 
of  liberty  ought  to  be  the  last  men  on  earth  to  decry 
classical  learning. 

It  was   from   the   newly  instituted   colleges  of  Scio 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  87 

and  Bucharest,  that,  the  first  champions  of  liberty  and 
independence  issued,  to  animate  their  fellow-bondmen 
of  Modern  Greece  to  break  the  chains  of  their  Moham- 
medan oppressors.  And  they  have  made  every  effort  to 
establish  schools,  throughout  their  degraded  country,  to 
teach  lessons  of  liberty  to  the  people.  God  grant  them 
success  in  their  glorious  struggle ;  and  a  generous,  high- 
minded,  patriotic,  virtuous,  enlightened  Washington,  to 
direct  their  energies  in  the  cabinet  and  in  the  field ! 

Now  there  can  be  no  better  or  stronger  evidence  in 
favour  of  the  general  beneficial  tendency  of  learning, 
however  obtained,  than  the  fact,  that,  whenever,  in 
ancient  or  modern  times,  endeavours  have  been  made 
to  procure  liberty  to  a  people,  and  wherever  it  has  been 
acquired,  those  endeavours  were  made,  and  that  acquisi- 
tion secured,  by  men  of  superior  knowledge.  Such  is 
the  language  of  history  from  Moses  to  Bolivar.  And 
among  the  most  enlightened  philanthropists  on  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe  at  this  moment,  the  grand  cause  of 
their  discouragement  and  despair  in  regard  to  liberty,  is, 
that  the  people  are  too  ignorant  to  be  intrusted  with 
liberty ;  and  hence  they  feel  constrained  to  remain  inac- 
tive. They  fain  would  give  instruction  to  the  people, 
in  order  to  prepare  and  qualify  them  for  free  and  liberal 
institutions,  would  their  masters  permit  them. 

When  our  fathers  commenced  their  almost  hopeless 
controversy  with  the  mother  country;  who  were  the 
kindred  spirits  attracted  to  our  shores  and  to  our  aid 
by  the  native  charms  and  legitimate  claims  of  liberty? 
Not  the  degraded  serf  or  feudal  slave — not  the  illiterate 


88  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUKSES. 

farmer  or  mechanic  —  but  such  men  as  might  have 
adorned  the  proudest  court  in  Christendom  —  men  of 
whom  their  own  country  was  unworthy  —  men  who 
understood  the  full  import  of  the  glorious  cause  to 
which  they  were  ready  to  sacrifice  titles,  and  honours, 
and  fortune  and  life  : — they  were  Pulaski,  Steuben,  De 
Kalb,  Kosciusko,  La  Fayette. 

And  who,  allow  me  to  ask  my  republican  auditors,  or, 
if  they  please,  to  remind  them  of  what,  perchance,  they 
may  have  forgotten — who  were  the  prompters,  the  main- 
springs, the  leaders  of  our  memorable  revolution  ?  The 
answer  to  the  question  is  upon  ever}'  schoolboy's  tongue. 
He  will  recount  a  catalague  of  jDatriots,  who,  for  pro- 
found knowledge  and  practical  wisdom,  were  never  sur- 
passed in  any  age  or  country.  Such  were  the  friends 
of  our  own  liberties,  at  a  time  too,  when  they  were  not 
only  stigmatized  as  rebels,  but  were  in  hourly  danger  of 
being  hanged  as  rebels.  They  were  the  master-spirits 
who  aroused  the  people  to  resistance.  They  were  honest 
men,  and  they  united  in  promoting  the  permanent  wel- 
fare of  their  country.  Happily,  the  people,  having  been 
generally  educated  at  common  schools,  were  sufficiently 
iufonned  to  comprehend  their  rights,  when  tliose  rights 
were  ably  explained  to  them,  and  wise  enough  to  be 
guided  by  their  superiors  in  wisdom.  But  had  the  intel- 
ligent, tlie  learned  colonists  of  those  days  combined  with 
the  English  aristocracy  in  maintaining  the  ancient  go- 
vernment in  all  its  plans  of  oppression,  the  people  would 
never  have  thought  of  a  revolution.  Had  they  been 
enlisted  on  the  side  of  the  British  ministry,  we  had  this 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  89 

day  been  the  loyal  subjects  of  his  majesty,  George  the 
Fourth. 

They  too,  be  it  remembered,  zealously  espoused  the 
cause  of  education  ;  well  assured  that  the  goodly  fibric 
of  libertj',  whicli  they  had  succeeded  in  rearing,  would 
speedily  tumble  into  ruins,  or  become  the  citadel  of  some 
future  Caesar  or  Catiline,  unless  the  rising  and  each  suc- 
cessive generation  should  be  taught  to  maintain  their 
rights  by  fully  comprehending  them.  Hence,  whenever 
they  had  opportunity,  in  the  legislative  councils  of  the 
States  or  of  the  Nation,  they  endeavoured  to  secure  a 
legal  provision  for  schools  and  colleges,  either  by  the 
appropriation  of  public  lands,  or  by  gradually  accumu- 
lating an  adequate  pecuniary  fund  for  the  purpose.  To 
the  general  truth  of  this  representation,  I  am  not  ac- 
quanited  with  a  single  exception  among  our  revolu- 
tionary heroes  and  statesmen.  All  the  Presidents  of 
the  United  States  have  uniformly  agreed  in  sentiment 
on  this  subject.  And  who,  of  the  long  list  of  worthies 
whom  the  people  have  delighted  to  honour  as  patriots, 
has  ever  ventured  to  advocate  a  contrary  doctrine  ? 

Franklin  laboured,  during  his  whole  life,  in  the  cause 
of  schools,  from  the  humblest  to  the  highest,  and  finally 
succeeded  in  founding  the  University  of  Pennsylvania : 
although  his  example  has  been  often  cited  to  prove  the 
inutility  of  all  such  institutions.  He  had  himself  con- 
quered difficulties  in  the  acquisition  of  science,  which  not 
one  of  a  million  would  ever  think  of  encountering.  And 
he  possessed  too  much  good  sense,  and  too  much  benevo- 
lence to  wish  others  to  be  left  to  the  mere  chance  of 


90  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

creating  for  themselves  a  path  to  eminence,  when  a 
great  pubhc  highway  might  be  so  easily  constructed  for 
their  convenience.  He  knew^  that  an  extraordinary  ex- 
ception to  a  general  rule  or  laAv  ought  never  to  be  urged 
against  the  rule  itself. 

Washington  devoted  much  of  his  time  and  all  the 
weight  of  his  influence  to  the  same  object.  And  he,  at 
last,  liberally  endowed  a  college  in  his  native  State, 
which  still  bears  his  name. 

Jefferson,  besides  promoting  the  same  great  cause 
during  the  long  period  of  his  public  career,  consecrated 
the  last  seventeen  years  of  his  valuable  life  to  the  esta- 
blishment of  a  University,  upon  the  most  permanent 
basis  and  of  the  most  enlarged  dimensions.  And  centu- 
ries hence,  probably,  the  name  of  Jefferson  will  be  more 
revered  and  distinguished  as  the  father  of  the  University 
of  Virginia,  than  as  a  philosopher  or  statesman. 

No  man,  it  is  presumed,  will,  at  the  present  day,  accuse 
a  Franklin,  a  Washington,  or  a  Jefierson  of  any  lack  of 
patriotism  or  republicanism.  And  no  man  need  be 
ashamed  to  follow  their  example.  May  their  spirit  rest 
upon  some  favoured  son  of  Tennessee;  and  may  she 
have  the  honour  of  perpetuating  upon  the  page  of  his- 
tory, a  name  worthy,  in  all  respects,  to  be  associated 
wdth  our  immortal  Franklin,  Washington  and  Jefferson ! 
This  honour,  I  doubt  not,  she  will  have ;  and  that  our 
Academic  Halls  w411  hail  him  as  a  patron  and  bene- 
factor, while  virtue  and  science  and  liberty  shall  exist 
in  our  land. 

As  I  am  dealing  altogether  with  facts,  and  not  with 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  91 

theories ;  and  as  I  do  not  wish  to  go  a  hair's  breadth 
beyond  the  simple  truth,  I  take  leave  distinctly  to  an- 
nounce to  you,  that,  I  do  not  affirm  that  all  men  of 
learning  have,  everywhere  and  under  all  circumstances, 
been  the  friends  of  liberty  and  of  human  happiness.  Far 
from  it.  The  position  which  I  maintain  is  simply  this ; 
— that  liberty  and  the  best  interests  of  humanity  have 
ever  been  ably  and  successfully  advocated  and  promoted 
only  by  men  well  informed ;  and  by  the  best  informed 
too  of  the  age  and  country  in  which  they  flourished. 
And,  that,  among  ourselves,  the  most  enlightened  citi- 
zens have  ever  approved  themselves  the  most  effectual 
guardians  of  the  people's  rights.  I  admit  also,  that  so 
far  as  this  argument  is  concerned,  it  matters  not  where 
or  how  they  acquire  the  requisite  knowledge — wdiether 
in  common  schools  or  high  schools — in  colleges  or  uni- 
versities— at  home  or  abroad — by  their  own  unassisted 
efforts  and  enterprise,  or  from .  public  institutions  esta- 
blished by  the  government  or  by  individual  munificence. 
But  until  a  better  mode  of  arriving  at  the  object  can  be 
devised,  we  shall  continue  to  regard  schools  and  colleges 
as  indispensable.  So  long  as  the  Republic  shall  need 
learned  men,  we  shall  expect  schools  and  colleges  to 
furnish  them.  They  have  already  done  the  State  some 
service :  and  they  are  destined,  we  trust,  to  do  it  a  great 
deal  more. 

I  am  no  blind  admirer  of  colleges  and  universities. 
There  exists  not  one,  in  Europe  or  America,  which 
might  not  be  greatly  improved.  The  same  may  be  said 
of    common   schools,    and   of    all    human    institutions. 


92  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Shall  we,  therefore,  put  an  end  to  every  system  of 
education,  because  none  has  hitherto  been  faultless? 
Will  those  who  denounce  colleges,  pretend  that  common 
schools  are  less  obnoxious  to  censure;  or  that  they  are 
as  good  as  they  need  to  be?  Reformation — improvement 
— is  the  order  of  the  age — and  it  must  be  obeyed.  The 
work  must  be  commenced  and  continued  simultaneously 
in  all  our  seminaries,  great  and  small.  The  cause  is 
one  and  indivisible.  Colleges  exert  an  important  in- 
fluence on  the  character  of  common  schools :  and  these 
again  constitute  the  foundation  of  colleges.  Unless 
common  schools  be  good,  our  colleges  will  not  be  good. 
The  intermediate  schools  or  academies  will  not  remedy 
the  defects  of  the  one  or  the  other.  It  is  all  important 
to  begin  well.  If  boys  enter  college  with  idle  and 
vicious  habits,  they  will  probably  continue  idle  and 
vicious.  If  they  have  been  well  trained  at  home  and 
at  school,  they  will  be  orderly,  virtuous  and  diligent  in 
college.  The  graduates  of  our  colleges  generally  will  be 
found  to  have  received  their  bias  to  virtue  or  vice,  under 
the  parental  roof,  and  from  their  earliest  instructors  and 
associates.  If  parents  neglect  their  sons,  or  leave  them 
to  ignorant  or  profligate  preceptors  or  companions,  during 
childhood  and  early  youth,  they  need  not  expect  that 
the  discipline  of  any  college  on  earth  will  operate  upon 
them  any  miraculous  regenerating  influence.  Such  boys 
are  ruined  before  they  enter  college :  although  parents 
are  generally  charitable  enough  to  blame  the  college  for 
their  own  inexcusable  folly  and  cruel  indulgence,  when 
their  hojjeless  sons  disappoint  their  unreasonable  expec- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  93 

tations.  Colleges  have  enough  to  answer  for :  let  them 
not  be  charged  with  sins  of  which  they  are  innocent. 
Nor  let  them  be  required  to  accomplish  impossiljilities. 
Supply  them  with  pupils,  who  have  been  thoroughly 
disciplined  at  home  and  at  school — of  a  suitable  age  to 
act  with  reasonable  discretion,  and  who  are  really  de- 
sirous to  acquire  knowledge — and  the  public  will  hear 
very  little  of  the  follies  and  dissipation  of  a  college  life. 
No  real  friend  of  colleges,  therefore,  can  ever  be  hostile 
or  indifferent  to  good  common  schools. 

It  were  well  for  the  community,  if  the  professed  ad- 
vocates of  common  schools  were  equally  well  disposed 
towards  colleges.  Their  grand  objection  to  them,  be- 
sides those  already  hinted  at,  is  briefly  this  : — That  col- 
leges are  designed  exclusively  for  the  rich — that  the 
poor  cannot  be  benefited  by  them — and,  therefore,  that 
the  poor  ought  not  to  be  taxed  for  their  support,  or  that 
the  people's  purse  ought  not  to  be  burdened  on  their 
account. 

This  specious  and  very  sage  objection  contains  several 
sophisms  and  several  falsehoods. 

In  the  first  place :  Colleges,  in  our  country,  are  not, 
never  were,  and  never  can  be  designed  exclusively  for 
the  rich.  For,  in  fact,  many  poor  youths  have  been 
educated  in  every  college  of  the  Union  during  every 
year  of  their  existence.  But  then,  such  poor  youths 
must  usually  belong  to  the  vicinity,  or  at  least  to  the 
State,  in  which  the  college  is  situated.  Neither  Con- 
necticut nor  New  Jersey  would  ever  think  of  educating 
at  their  colleges  a  poor  youth  of  Tennessee :  but  many 


94  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

hundreds  of  poor,  very  poor  young  men  of  their  own 
States  have  been  thus  educated.  Without  a  coUege  at 
home,  every  poor  youth  is  necessarily  cut  off  from  all 
hope  or  chance  of  any  such  privilege. 

Again,  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  there  is  in  the 
community  another  class  of  citizens  vastly  larger  than 
both  of  them  put  together — the  middling  class,  and  the 
best  class — all  of  whom  might  educate  one  or  more  sons 
at  college,  at  an  expense  of  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  per  year,  who  could  never  send  their  sons 
abroad  at  an  expense  of  from  five  hundred  to  a  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  Will  the  State  do  nothing  for  this  large 
and  respectable  body  of  her  citizens  ?  The  merest  trifle 
contributed  by  each  would  place  advantages  within  the 
reach  of  the  whole,  which  no  individual  could  otherwise 
possibly  command. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  grant  that  colleges  are  de- 
signed exclusively  for  the  rich.  What  does  a  wise 
policy  dictate  as  the  proper  course  to  be  pursued  ?  The 
question  is  not,  whether  the  rich  shall,  or  shall  not  edu- 
cate their  sons  at  a  college ;  but  whether  they  may  do  it 
at  home,  or  must  do  it  abroad  ?  For  with  money,  they 
can  do  what  they  please.  They  can  send  their  sons  to 
Philadelphia  or  Paris,  to  Oxford  or  Edinburgh.  Would 
it  not  be  good  policy  then  to  require  these  rich  men  to 
build  up  a  college,  suited  to  their  own  purposes,  and  at 
their  own  expense ;  and  thereby  constrain  or  induce 
them  to  employ  their  funds,  and  to  disburse  their  ample 
revenues  within  the  State,  to  the  unspeakable  benefit  of 
all  classes  of  citizens,  and  especially  of  the  middling  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  95 

poorest,  by  encouraging  every  species  of  industry  and 
enhancing  the  value  of  every  description  of  property,  to 
the  full  amount  of  the  money  thus  prevented  from  going 
into  the  hands  of  foreigners  ?  Were  this  matter  rightly 
understood  by  the  people,  they  would  presently  perceive, 
that,  the  main  scope  of  the  pretext  so  artfully  employed 
to  mislead  them,  was,  after  all,  at  bottom,  nothing  more 
than  to  spare  the  purses  of  the  rich,  to  the  manifest 
detriment  of  the  whole  community — of  the  rich  as  well 
as  the  poor — for  the  rich  deceive  themselves  if  they 
imagine  that  they  will  be  the  gainers  in  any  way  by 
such  a  course.  It  will  cost  a  rich  man  ten  times  as 
much  to  educate  one  son  at  a  distant  seminary  as  he 
would  be  required  to  contribute,  during  his  whole  life, 
for  the  erection  of  a  college,  according  to  any  equitable 
plan  of  assessment  or  taxation  which  might  be  adopted 
for  the  purpose. 

But,  in  the  third  place, — why  all  this  clamour  and 
affectation  of  zeal  in  behalf  of  the  poor  ?  Do  men  legis- 
late only  for  the  poor?  Does  the  government  exist 
solely  for  the  poor?  Are  the  poor,  and  they  only, 
elected  to  office  ?  Is  not  some  pecuniary  or  landed 
qualification  indispensable  to  any  man's  eligibility  to 
office  ?  Is  the  public  mone}^ — ay,  the  people's  money — 
paid  out  in  salaries  to  the  poor — to  poor  governors,  poor 
judges,  poor  senators?  Are  banking,  insurance,  manu- 
facturing, turnpike,  bridge,  or  canal  companies  incorpo- 
rated from  among  the  poor,  and  chiefly  for  the  benefit 
of  the  poor  ?  One  might  imagine  from  the  noise  made 
on  the  subject,  that  the  poor  were  all  in  all  to  the  State; 


96-  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

that  the  J  were  the  precious  objects  of  the  goA^ernment's 
special  care  and  protection :  Since  their  self-constituted 
patrons  virtually  maintain,  that,  if  they  cannot  all  go  to 
college,  there  shall  be  no  college.  Why  not  decree,  that 
if  the  poor  man  cannot  ride  in  a  coach,  there  shall  be  no 
coaches ;  or  that  the  rich  shall  not  use  them  ? 

Now  the  plain  simple  truth  is,  that  the  poor  are  never 
taxed  in  our  country  for  any  purpose  whatever.  All 
taxes  are  levied  on  property.  Were  twenty  colleges  to 
be  commenced  to-morrow,  the  poor  would  not  be  bur- 
dened a  farthing.  They  would,  on  the  contrary,  be  im- 
mediately benefited  by  the  demand  thus  created  for  their 
labour,  and  by  the  liberal  wages  which  would  be  paid 
them. 

But,  in  the  fourth  place,  strictly  speaking,  there  are 
no  ])oor  in  our  country.  Among  the  white  population 
there  is  no  degraded  caste.  We  have  no  class  of  poor, 
like  the  poor  of  Europe.  We  impose  on  ourselves  by  the 
imported  terms  and  phraseology  of  transatlantic  society. 
And  hence  we  talk  as  currently  about  the  poor,  as  would 
an  English  lord  or  German  baron.  Forgetting  that  the 
poorest  man  in  the  Republic  may  become  rich.  The 
richest  of  our  citizens  have  been  poor.  The  rich  and 
the  poor  are  frequently  related  to  each  other.  The  rich 
man  may  have  a  poor  father  or  brother.  And  the  poor- 
est individual  may  be  nearly  allied  to  the  most  distin- 
guished families  in  the  land.  Our  state  of  society  is 
constantly  fluctuating.  Rich  families  daily  decline : 
poor  ones  daily  advance.  Wealth  and  poverty  are  mere 
accidents.     They  are  not  hereditary  in  particular  lines. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  97 

or  perpetuated  in  particular  families.  It  is  absurd  there- 
fore to  declaim  or  to  speculate  about  the  poor  as  if  they 
were  an  oppressed,  miserable,  helpless  class,  like  the 
Russian  or  Polish  peasantry.  We  have  all  been  poor. 
We  may  be  poor  again.  When  poor,  we  were  obliged 
to  deny  ourselves  many  comforts,  luxuries  and  privi- 
leges which  we  now  enjoy ;  and  it  was  mainly  by  this 
self-denial  that  we  were  enabled  to  improve  our  con- 
dition. And  such  must  ever  be  the  case.  K  the  poor 
wish  to  rise  above  their  present  condition,  they  can  do 
so,  everyAvhere  in  our  country,  by  industry,  prudence 
and  economy :  and  they  will  continue  to  do  so,  as  long 
as  they  shall  be  left  to  their  own  free  energies.  I  trust 
the  time  is  far  distant,  when  our  government  shall  think 
it  worth  while  to  perpetuate  pauperism  amongst  us  by 
legal  encouragement — by  premiums  in  the  shape  of  poor- 
rates. 

The  only  distinction  which  exists  among  our  citizens, 
worthy  of  notice,  is  between  the  educated  and  the  un- 
educated. The  former  engross  all  the  wealth,  offices 
and  influence  in  the  nation ;  while  the  latter  remain  the 
victims  of  want,  of  crime,  of  infamy,  and  of  punishment. 
I  here  use  the  term  educated  in  a  very  wide  and  compre- 
hensive sense.  That  individual  who  has  learned  how 
to  labour  at  any  honest  occupation,  and  who  knows  how 
to  manage  his  earnings  skilfully,  is  educated,  and  well 
educated,  compared  with  those  who  have  been  brought 
up  to  no  business;  or  who  are  destitute  of  sobriety, 
prudence  and  economy.  He  may  become  rich  and 
honourable;    while    they    are    necessarily    doomed    to 

VOL.  I.  T 


98  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

poverty  and  wretchedness.  Between  these  two  de- 
scriptions of  persons  there  is  an  impassable  gulf.  They 
are  further  removed  from  each  other  than  the  lord  and 
his  vassal :  and  the  longer  they  live  the  wider  will  be 
the  distance  between  them.  Whoever  has  grown  up  in 
total  ignorance  of  the  means  of  acquiring  an  honest  live- 
lihood, and  with  vicious  habits,  may  be  regarded,  in 
general,  as  helpless  and  hopeless.  Gross  ignorance,  at 
least  of  everything  good  and  useful,  is  the  cause  of  all 
the  degradation  in  our  country.  Now  although  there 
may  be  no  effectual  remedy  for  the  evil  which  actually 
exists,  yet  there  is  a  preventive — its  further  progress 
may  be  checked — its  recurrence  may  be  prevented. 
This  preventive  remedy  is  instruction,  moral,  intellec- 
tual, physical,  religious.  It  is  not  only  the  cheapest — 
it  is  the  only  remedy.  If  inveterate  habits  cannot  be 
changed ;  take  care  that  the  children  form  better  habits, 
and  imbibe  better  principles  than  their  fathers. 

Our  country  has  expended,  and  continues  to  expend, 
on  courts  of  justice  and  criminal  prosecutions  —  on 
prisons  and  penitentiaries  —  for  the  punishment  and 
safe  keeping  of  a  few  veteran  and  incorrigible  villains, 
vastly  more  money  than  would  be  required  to  give  a 
suitable  education  to  all  the  absolutely  indigent  youth 
in  the  nation.  If  government,  therefore,  instead  of 
wasting  millions  in  the  hopeless  endeavour  to  reform 
the  hardened  offender,  would  cause  such  children  as 
would  otherwise  be  neglected,  to  be  properly  disciplined 
and  brought  up,  there  would  soon  be  little  necessity  for 
prisons  or  penitentiaries.     Here  is  the  right  end  to  begin 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  99 

at — the  proper  starting  point — the  first  step  in  the  work 
of  general  reformation,  without  which  everj^  other  will 
be  taken  in  vain.  Happily,  wherever  the  experiment 
has  been  made,  it  has  fully  succeeded.  Among  the 
thousands  of  poor  children  recently  trained  in  the  free 
schools  of  the  city  of  New  York,  not  one  has  been  sen- 
tenced to  Bridewell.  Thus  far  then,  at  least,  the  rich 
might  be  fairly  taxed  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor.  This 
would  not  only  be  real  benevolence — it  would  be  the 
wisest  policy — the  least  expensive  course  that  could  be 
adopted.  And  if  the  State  should  choose  to  do  more ; 
let  a  certain  proportion  of  the  most  promising  boys  in 
the  common  schools  be  annually  advanced  to  the  aca- 
demy; and  the  best  of  these  again  to  the  college,  at  the 
public  expense. 

It  is  worse  than  idle  to  object  to  colleges  because  they 
do  not  educate  the  poor,  and  yet  to  refuse  them  the 
means  of  doing  it.  If  the  State  please,  she  can  organize 
and  endow  a  college,  so  that  the  poor  and  the  rich  may 
enjoy  its  privileges  gratis.  Or  she  may  make  such  pro- 
vision only  for  the  poor,  and  compel  the  rich  to  pay. 
She  has  it  in  her  power  to  confer  on  the  poor,  in  this 
respect,  whatever  favours  she  chooses.  If  any  honest 
friend  of  the  poor  and  the  ignorant  can  devise  a  more 
liberal  or  judicious  system  for  their  elevation  in  society, 
it  shall  receive  my  hearty  approbation  and  support. 

Let  it  not  be  inferred  from  anything  just  said,  that  I 
am  an  enemy  to  the  penitentiary  system.  It  is,  when 
judiciously  administered,  a  good  and  necessary  system, 
in  the  existing  state  of  our  society.     But  it  may,  and  I 


100  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

doubt  not,  will  be,  in  a  great  measure,  superseded  b}'  the 
proper  training  of  our  youth,  who  would  otherwise  be- 
come its  pitiable  subjects. 

Having  thus,  at  greater  length  than  I  intended,  dis- 
posed of  some  of  the  popular  objections  to  colleges — 
objections  which  I  have  frequentlj^  heard  advanced  in 
Tennessee  —  I  might  proceed  to  show  what  a  college 
ought  to  be.  But  as  I  have,  on  a  former  occasion,  ex- 
pressed my  "vdews  pretty  fully  on  this  subject,  I  shall  not 
repeat  them  now. 

I  must  be  permitted,  however,  to  say  a  word  in  behalf 
of  Cumberland  College ;  especially  to  my  young  friends, 
who  have  just  been  adorned  with  her  laurel,  and  who 
will  be  regarded  as  her  representatives  before  the  public, 
and  whom  she  will  regard  as  her  natural  and  most 
warmly  devoted  friends  and  advocates. 

You  have  been  told,  or  you  have  witnessed  the  various 
fortune  of  this  institution — its  many  and  well-sustained 
struggles  for  existence — its  decline  and  failure  after  a 
few  bright  days  of  sunshine  and  prosperity — its  recent 
resuscitation  under  circumstances  which  would  have 
discouraged  and  appalled  men  of  ordinary  capacity  and 
enterprise — its  conduct,  character  and  progress  during 
the  period  of  nearly  two  years  since  its  re-organization ; 
and  you  cannot  be  insensible  to  the  numerous  difficulties 
and  obstacles,  which  it  must  still  encounter,  before  it  can 
attain  that  pre-eminent  rank  to  which  she  aspires.  For 
she  will  not  l>e  content  with  humble  mediocrity,  nor  with 
a  mere  equality  with  her  sister  institutions.  She  aims 
at  vastly  greater  eminence  and  usefulness  than  has  yet 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  101 

been  reached  by  any  of  them.  This  aim  will  be  pro- 
nounced visionary  by  those  Avho  do  not  know  what  con- 
stitutes the  real  excellence  of  a  college,  and  by  those 
w^ho  are  ever  disposed  to  predict  a  failure  where  they  do 
not  wish  success. 

Men  frequently,  too,  labour  under  an  unfortunate  pre- 
judice on  this  subject.  They  presume  that  colleges  must 
be  growing  better  as  they  grow  older ;  and  distance  of 
situation  greatly  increases  their  reverence.  Hence,  a 
venerable  monastic  establishment,  a  hundred  years  old, 
and  a  thousand  miles  off,  is  conceived  to  possess  advan- 
tages which  young  Tennessee  cannot  hope  for  in  a 
century.  Now  I  venture  to  assert,  that,  our  infant 
university  might  be  made,  in  five  3'ears,  superior  to  any 
and  to  all  the  colleges  in  our  country — if  the  people  will 
but  decree  it.  Let  us  not  be  imposed  on  by  mere  names. 
Buildings,  books,  apparatus,  teachers,  constitute  the  prin- 
cipal expensive  ingredients  of  a  university :  and  money 
can  command  them  all,  in  as  great  abundance  and  per- 
fection here,  as  in  Europe  or  old  America.  We  have  the 
full  benefit  of  all  past  experience  to  begin  with.  What- 
ever is  excellent  in  existing  institutions,  we  may  adopt : 
whatever  is  superfluous,  or  antiquated,  or  faulty,  we  may 
reject.  It  is  much  easier  to  create  a  good  institution 
than  to  mend  a  bad  one.  Ancient  usage  naturally  be- 
comes prescriptive,  and  ordinarily  prevents  innovation 
or  improvement. 

Upon  the  virgin  soil  of  Tennessee,  then,  may  be 
reared  a  seminary,  which  shall  eclipse,  in  grandeur  of 
design  and  felicity  of  execution,  and  in  the  wisdom  of 


102  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

its  arrangements  and  combinations,  all  other  institutions 
— if  her  sons  will  but  prove  true  to  themselves  and  faith- 
ful to  future  generations.  A  more  eligible  or  healthful 
site  for  such  an  establishment  cannot  be  found  in  the 
Western  country.  Here  is  the  place,  and  now  is  the 
time  for  generous  enterprise.  Here  let  us  erect  a  uni- 
versity, so  decidedly  and  confessedly  superior  in  every 
department,  that  a  rival  or  competitor  need  not  be 
feared.  Let  us  make  ample  provision  for  every  spe- 
cies of  instruction  —  scientific,  literary,  professional — 
which  our  country  demands.  Let  education  be  ex- 
tended to  the  physical  and  moral,  as  well  as  to  the 
mental  faculties.  Let  agriculture,  horticulture,  civil 
and  military  engineering,  gymnastics,  the  liberal  and 
the  mechanical  arts  —  whatever  may  tend  to  impart 
vigour,  dignity,  grace,  activity,  health,  to  tho  body — 
whatever  may  tend  to  purify  the  heart,  improve  the 
morals  and  manners,  discipline  the  intellect,  and  to 
furnish  it  with  copious  stores  of  useful  elementary 
knowledge, — obtain  their  appropriate  place  and  rank, 
and  receive  merited  attention  in  our  seminary;  so  that 
parents  may,  with  confidence,  commit  their  sons  to  our 
care.  Assured  that  they  will  be  in  safe  and  skilful 
hands — under  a  government,  equitable,  paternal,  mild, 
firm,  vigilant  and  faithful — where  their  every  interest 
will  be  consulted,  their  every  faculty  be  duly  cultivated, 
and  where  every  effort  will  be  made  to  render  them  in- 
telligent, virtuous,  accomplished  citizens.  Does  any  man 
doubt  that  such  an  institution  will  ever  want  patronage  ? 
Make  it  the  best  in  the  country;    and  will  it  not  com- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  103 

mand  the  patronage  of  the  country  ?  Such  an  establish- 
ment as  we  contemplate,  the  public  mind  is  already  pre- 
pared for,  and  has  begun  to  call  for.  This  call  is 
imperative — it  will  be  heard — it  will  be  answered.  We 
must  meet  it  or  others  will. 

Our  college  is  already  as  good  and  respectable  as  most 
others ;  certainly  inferior  to  none  in  the  West.  It  has 
received  the  most  flattering  encouragement.  No  college, 
in  any  part  of  our  country,  has,  with  the  same  means, 
effected  as  much,  or  numbered  as  many  students,  in  so 
short  a  period.  I  may  add,  too,  without  exaggeration  or 
compliment,  that,  the  orderly,  moral,  gentlemanly  de- 
portment of  our  students,  during  the  past  session  espe- 
cially, and  of  most  of  them  from  the  beginning,  would 
have  done  credit  to  any  seminary.  And  that  they  have 
made  extraordinary  proficiency  in  the  languages  and 
sciences,  taught  by  our  laborious  and  accomplished  pro- 
fessors, has  been  fully  acknowledged  by  all  who  have 
attended  their  public  examinations  or  ordinary  recita- 
tions. The  friends  of  the  college,  therefore,  have  no 
ground  for  despondency  on  the  one  hand ;  and  we  trust 
that  they  will  not  be  so  far  satisfied  with  its  actual  con- 
dition on  the  other,  as  to  relax  their  zealous  efforts  for 
its  future  improvement. 

In  this  great  work,  there  is  no  resting  place — no  point 
to  stop  at.  With  the  increase  of  population,  with  the 
march  of  mind  and  the  progress  of  universal  improve- 
ment, we  must  keep  pace.  We  must  daily  advance. 
Perfection  should  be  our  motto  and  our  aim,  however 
much  we  may  ultimately  fail  of  attaining  it.      Every 


104  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

successful  step  should  prompt  to  another  and  a  greater. 
When  we  have  gained  one  eminence,  we  shall  he  able 
to  descry  a  still  higher  and  a  more  inviting ,-  which, 
when  reached,  must  serve  only  to  enlarge  our  horizon, 
and  extend  our  vision,  and  brighten  our  hopes,  and  ani- 
mate our  efforts,  and  cheer  us  in  our  labours,  for  the 
welfare  of  mankind. 

The  Trustees  of  Cumberland  College  have  purchased 
one  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  land  to  meet  the  va- 
rious purposes  of  their  contemj^lated  university.  It  is 
proposed  immediately  to  commence  the  erection  of  a 
series  of  buildings  for  the  accommodation  of  students, 
instructors  and  stewards;  consisting  of  five  additional 
colleges,  each  sufficiently  commodious  for  a  hundred 
students  and  three  assistant  professors  or  tutors,  and  of 
seven  houses  for  as  many  principal  or  head  professors. 
We  shall  then  have  six  colleges,  and  twenty-five  instruc- 
tors, and  accommodations  for  six  hundred  pupils.  To 
each  college  will  be  attached  a  refectory  or  boarding 
house,  with  eight  or  ten  acres  of  land  for  gardening  and 
exercise.  The  colleges  will  be  erected  at  such  distances 
from  each  other  as  to  prevent  the  usual  evils  resulting 
from  the  congregation  of  large  numbers  of  j^outh  at  the 
same  place.  Professors  will  occupy  houses  on  the  in- 
tervening lots :  and  there  will  be  at  least  three  officers 
resident  within  the  walls  of  each  college.  We  shall  thus 
have  six  distinct  and  separate  families,  so  far  as  regards 
domestic  economy,  internal  police,  and  social  order; 
while  one  Senatus  Academicus  will  superintend  and 
control  the  whole. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  105 

Gardens  and  mechanics'  sliojis  will  be  interspersed 
among  the  various  edifices,  in  such  manner  as  to  be 
easily  accessible  to  all  the  youth  for  improvement  and 
recreation.  Whenever  the  present  ground  shall  be  thus 
occupied,  it  will  be  necessary  to  procure  fifty  or  a  hun- 
dred acres  more,  for  a  model  or  experimental  farm ;  that 
agriculture,  the  noblest  of  sciences  and  the  most  import- 
ant of  the  useful  arts,  may  be  thoroughly  studied  and 
practised.  At  a  future  period,  or  as  soon  as  the  means 
can  be  obtained,  other  suitable  edifices,  both  useful  and 
ornamental,  may  be  erected.  The  plan  admits  of  inde- 
finite extension;  and  in  proportion  to  its  enlargement, 
its  advantages  will  be  increased,  while  the  expense  of  its 
maintenance  will  be  diminished. 

In  order  to  execute  our  present  desig-n,  only  about 
$200,000  will  be  required.  This  sum  might  be  fur- 
nished by  the  State  at  once ;  or  in  two,  four,  eight  or 
ten  jears.  Or  it  may  be  obtained  partly  b}-  donations, 
and  parti}'  by  loan.  Any  individual,  for  instance,  be- 
stowing $20,000  may  give  his  name  to  a  college  or  to  a 
professorship  :  or  any  number  of  individuals,  subscribing 
that  sum,  may  give  any  name  the}'  please  to  a  college 
or  professorship.  Suppose  Davidson  county,  or  even 
Nashville  were  disposed  to  erect  a  monument  to  the 
memory  of  her  most  honoured  citizen ;  what  could  she 
do  more  grateful  to  him,  more  worthy  of  herself,  more 
beneficial  to  the  Republic,  than  to  contribute  the  sum  of 
$20,000  to  build  an  edifice,  on  yonder  hill,  to  be  known 
among  all  future  generations  as  Jacksox  College, 
founded   and    endowed    by   the    citizens   of    Davidson 


106  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

county  or   of  Nashville,  in    the   year  what   year 

shall  be  designated  ?  If  the  appeal  were  made  to  her 
generosity,  her  public  spirit,  her  gratitude,  her  just 
pride  and  magnanimity,  I  cannot  deem  so  lightly  of 
her  present  citizens  as  to  anticipate  a  refusal,  which 
would  prove  her  alike  unworthy  of  a  great  University 
and  of  the  Hero  of  New  Orleans. 

Let  us  calculate — we  have,  within  the  limits  of  our 
city  corporation  alone,  not  less  than  four  thousand  free 
white  inhabitants.  .  Were  each  to  give  five  dollars,  or 
were  two  thousand  to  give  each  ten  dollars,  or  were  one 
thousand  to  give  twenty  dollars  apiece,  the  object  would 
be  accomplished  without  the  aid  of  the  county  at  large : 
and  who  could  feel  the  burden  ?  Thus,  then,  one  col- 
lege, at  least,  is  provided  for.  Some  others  might  pos- 
sibly be  erected  by  similar  means,  and  in  honour  of 
other  meritorious  individuals. 

The  little  town  of  Amherst,  in  Massachusetts,  which 
does  not  contain  one-half  of  the  population,  nor  one- 
twentieth  part  of  the  wealth  of  Nashville,  raised,  by 
private  subscription  in  1821,  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand 
dollars  to  commence  a  college  within  its  limits.*  And 
several  other  towns  in  our  country  have  been  equally 
munificent. 

Let  no  man  imagine,  that,  in  giving  money  to  a  col- 
lege, he  is  doling  out  alms  to  an  importunate  or  worth- 

*  Another  sum  of  $50,000  was  added  to  the  funds  of  Amherst  Col- 
lege by  the  private  subscription  of  its  friends,  during  the  last  year 
(1832.)  And  the  sum  of  $100,000  was  raised  for  the  benefit  of  Yale 
College  by  her  alumni  during  the  same  year. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  107 

less  beggar.  He  does  honour  to  himself  hy  the  act; 
and  the  institution  honours  him  by  accepting  his 
bounty;  and  is  able  to  confer  on  him  and  his  family 
a  greater  and  more  durable  honour  than  mere  selfish 
wealth  can  ever  procure.  The  otherwise  obscure  names 
of  Harvard,  Yale,  Dartmouth,  Bowdoin,  Williams, 
Brown,  Bartlett,  Phillips,  Dickinson,  Rutgers,  will  be 
immortalized  by  the  seminaries  to  which  they  have 
been  benefactors,  and  which  will  bear  their  names  for- 
ever. If  honour,  real  honour,  lasting  honour,  be  worth 
seeking ;  here  is  the  road  to  it. 

If,  however,  nothing  can  be  obtained  from  our  legisla- 
ture, or  from  our  good  city  or  county,  or  from  indivi- 
duals, we  may  borrow  the  whole  sum  of  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  at  an  interest  not  exceeding  six  per 
cent. — creating  a  transferable  six  per  cent,  stock — and, 
in  twenty  years,  we  could  easily  pay  off  both  principal 
and  interest,  at  the  present  rate  of  charges  for  tuition 
and  room-rent.  It  would  be  merely  necessary,  in  order 
to  procure  the  loan,  that  the  State  should  guaranty  the 
payment,  or  that  responsible  individuals  should  under- 
write for  us.  And  we  can  pledge  ample  means  either 
to  the  State  or  to  individuals,  to  secure  the  one  or  the 
other,  from  all  hazard  of  eventual  loss ;  as  I  am  prepared 
to  demonstrate,  at  the  proper  time  to  all  competent 
judges.  Now  it  would  be  vastly  preferable  that  the 
money  should  be  gratuitously  furnished,  because  (to 
specify  no  other  advantages)  the  expenses  of  an  educa- 
tion at  our  university  might  be  diminished  one-half  im- 


108  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

mediately;    and  thus  would  the  portals  of  science  be 
opened  wide  to  the  great  majority  of  our  people.     , 

But  the  funds  must  and  will  be  forthcoming  from 
some  quarter.  We  are  not  to  be  deterred  or  frightened 
from  our  purpose  by  any  obstacles,  real  or  imaginary. 
We  have  very  deliberately  counted  the  cost :  and 
ONWARD  is  engraven  upon  our  banners  and  upon  our 
hearts. 

Who,  let  me  ask — I  put  the  question  to  this  assembly 
— to  the  good  people  of  Tennessee — who  will  oppose  our 
projected  institution,  designed,  as  it  is,  exclusively  for 
the  benefit  of  this  people  ?  I  will  tell  you.  It  will  be 
opposed  by  the  faintrhearted,  the  cowardly,  the  ignorant, 
the  covetous;  and  by  all  the  enemies  of  light,  truth, 
virtue  and  human  happiness.  It  will  be  opposed  by 
that  description  of  selfish,  arrogant,  self-sufficient,  wouJd 
he  lords  and  Solomons,  who  exist  in  every  petty  village, 
and  wdio  always  oppose  whatever  does  not  originate 
from  themselves,  or  which  is  not  submitted  to  their  own 
wise  management  and  control.  It  will  be  opposed  by 
those  who  can,  by  any  artifice  or  misrepresentation,  con- 
vert the  scheme  into  a  political  hobby  to  ride  into  office. 
It  will  be  opposed  by  those  who  despair  of  getting  out 
of  it  a  job — a  bargain — a  money-making  speculation — 
some  paltry  private  gain  or  advantage.  But  it  will 
never  be  opposed  by  one  honest  man,  by  one  honourable 
man,  by  one  enlightened  man,  by  one  patriotic  man,  by 
one  benevolent  man,  by  one  great  or  good  man. 

Here  then,  before   the   venerable   fathers,   who  first 
planted  the  standard  of  civilization  and  Christianity  in 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  109 

this  recent  wilderness,  shall  have  left  the  scene  of  their 
early  toils  and  sufferings  forever,  let  the  banks  of  the 
Cumberland  be  adorned  with  the  majestic  temples  of 
science  and  with  the  academic  groves,  which  may 
proudly  vie  with  those  which  have  conferred  immor- 
tality on  the  Cam  and  the  Isis. 

Alma  Mater  confidently  appeals  to  her  own  inge- 
nuous alumni ;  and  claims  of  them  chivalrous  fealty, 
and  honourable  service,  and  lasting  attachment,  and 
generous  support.  She  will  not  appeal  to  them  in  vain. 
And  may  she,  as  I  doubt  not  she  will,  a  thousand  gene- 
rations after  all  her  enemies  shall  be  forgotten,  be  the 
ornament,  the  pride,  and  the  glory  of  Tennessee ! 

Having  thus  earnestly  pressed  upon  your  notice  the 
great  cause  of  education,  and  the  cause  of  our  own  infant 
university  in  particular,  as  worthy  of  peculiar  regard 
and  beneficence ;  I  may  briefly  add,  in  this  connexion, 
that  every  scheme  and  enterprise,  calculated,  in  any  de- 
gree, to  promote  human  happiness,  will  also  claim  your 
countenance  and  support.  You  must  be  the  leaders — 
where  others  better  qualified  do  not  offer — in  every  good 
work.  I  do  not  recommend  to  you  merely  those  magni- 
ficent and  imposing  projects  for  the  melioration  of  the 
condition  of  mankind,  which  are  sufficiently  popular  to 
command  general  respect;  but,  besides  these,  I  recom- 
mend to  you  those  humbler,  less  dazzling,  less  conspicu- 
ous, and,  frequently,  more  disinterested  modes  of  doing 
good,  which  occur  every  day,  in  every  village,  and  in 
almost  every  family.  Now,  to  be  able  to  do  good,  in 
any  of  the  modes  suggested  or  contemplated,  remember, 


110  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

that,  industry  in  acquiring  knowledge  or  wealth  will  not 
alone  suffice.  Nor  will  it  be  sufficient  to  abstain,  from 
degrading  vice — from  intemperance  and  gambling — from 
every  species  of  youthful  irregularity  and  ruinous  dissi- 
pation. You  must  study  prudence  and  economy  in  the 
management  of  both  time  and  money.  A  man,  extrava- 
gant in  his  ordinary  expenses,  fond  of  show  and  ostentor 
tion,  eager  to  be  at  the  head  of  the  fashionable  world  or 
in  the  pursuit  of  fashionable  pleasures  and  follies,  is  not 
likely  to  be  generous.  He  will  never  become  a  Howard 
or  a  Franklin.  The  man  of  plain  and  simple  habits, 
who  avoids  all  needless  display  and  luxury,  who  is  con- 
tent with  what  is  useful  and  comfortable,  is  the  man 
who  has  the  most  to  bestow  on  objects  of  charity,  bene- 
volence and  public  utility. 

Go  then.  Young  Gentlemen,  and  prosecute  with  per- 
severing ardour,  the  new  course  of  study  and  discipline, 
which  is  to  qualify  you  to  enter,  in  due  time,  upon  the 
great  theatre  of  active,  useful,  honourable  life.  Be  not 
in  haste  to  engage  in  those  various  liberal  professions,  to 
which  most  or  all  of  you,  perhaps,  intend  hereafter  to 
devote  your  faculties.  Wait,  with  patience,  the  full  de- 
velopment of  your  mental  powers ;  and  continue  long  to 
collect,  with  untiring  assiduity,  from  every  source,  the 
treasures  of  knowledge  which  are  necessary  to  fit  you 
for  eminence  in  any  profession;  and  for  the  noblest 
career  of  usefulness  to  your  country,  and  for  the  most 
exalted  stations  within  her  gift.  Despise  not — neglect 
not  any  department  of  human  learning,  whenever  and 
wherever  it  can  be  consistently  cultivated.      No  man 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  Ill 

ever  denounces,  as  useless  or  sui)erfluous,  any  science  or 
language  with  Avliicli  he  is  himself  acquainted.  The 
ignorant  only,  condemn  :  and  they  condemn  what  they 
do  not  understand,  and  because  they  do  not  understand 
it.  Whenever,  therefore,  }'ou  hear  a  man  declaiming 
against  any  literary  or  scientific  pursuit,  you  ma}^  rest 
assured  that  he  knows  nothing  of  the  matter :  and  you 
will  need  no  better  evidence  of  his  total  incompetency 
to  sit  m  judgment  upon  the  case.  Of  all  the  learned 
men  of  whatever  age,  country  or  profession,  who  have 
benefited  our  world  by  their  labours — who  have  been 
most  distinguished  and  most  successful  ?  Precisely  those 
who  have  judiciously  put  under  contribution,  to  the 
greatest  extent,  every  corner  and  recess  of  the  grand 
temple  of  science,  which  it  was  possible  for  them  to  ex- 
plore. There  is  such  an  intimate  connexion  between 
the  sciences,  such  a  perfect  harmony  of  parts  in  the 
great  whole  of  human  knowledge,  that  all  may  fre- 
quently, like  the  rays  of  the  sun,  be  brought  to  bear 
intensely  on  a  single  point ;  or,  at  pleasure,  be  spread 
over  an  immense  surface,  diffusing  light  and  heat  and 
joy  to  the  utmost  verge  of  civilized  society. 

Study,  then,  to  improve  all  your  time  in  the  most  pro- 
fitable manner.  Let  your  amusements  be  rational,  vir- 
tuous, seasonable,  manly,  and  invigorating  to  body  and 
mind.  Let  order,  and  method,  and  system  be  adopted 
and  rigorously  maintained.  Study  hard  while  you  pro- 
fess to  study.  Relax  at  suitable  intervals,  only  to  re- 
turn with  redoubled  ardour  to  your  books.  Thus, 
health,   serenity  of  mind,   elasticity  of  spirits,  present 


112  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUESES. 

enjoyment,  future   usefulness    and   honour  will   all .  be 
promoted  and  secured. 

Be  not,  however,  the  blind  idolaters  of  genius  or  of 
science.  Both  may  exist  where  not  one  lovely  or  com- 
mendable trait  of  character  can  be  found.  The  loftiest 
intellect,  without  virtue,  is  but  archangel  ruined.  In 
God  only,  do  we  behold  the  perfection  of  understanding, 
of  wisdom,  of  knowledge,  of  holiness.  And  he  is  that 
perfect  standard  which  we  are  commanded  to  aim  at. 
Religion,  which  requires  us  to  be  like  God,  constitutes 
the  whole  of  moral  excellence.  And  in  proportion  as 
religion  influences  the  heart  and  life,  will  be  the  moral 
worth  of  any  individual.  There  can  be  no  principle  of 
integrity,  of  truth,  of  kindness,  of  justice,  independently 
of  religion.  No  human  laws,  usages,  institutions  or 
opinions  can,  of  themselves,  ever  render  any  man  per- 
fectly honest  in  all  his  dealings  and  transactions  with 
his  fellow-men.  He  has  it  continually  in  his  power, 
with  a  fair  reputation  too,  to  mislead,  deceive,  defraud — 
and,  in  a  thousand  ways,  to  practise  imposition.  And 
he  is  continually  tempted  to  do  this,  in  a  country  where 
influence,  oflice,  money  are  the  objects  of  universal  de- 
sire and  ambition,  and  where  success  is  regarded  as  the 
criterion  of  merit  and  talent.  He  may  not  be  a  thief  or 
a  robber  in  the  eye  of  the  law,  or  according  to  the  ordi- 
nary judgment  of  men ;  and  yet  he  may  be  habitually 
more  criminal  than  either,  in  the  eye  of  infinite  purity 
and  justice ;  and  would  be  so  pronounced  by  any  tribu- 
nal of  perfectly  honest  men,  who  could  take  cognizance 
of  all  the  motives,  facts  and  circumstances.     That  man. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  113 

who  will  take  any  undue  advantage  of  another  in  a 
bargain,  or  in  any  mode  whatever,  would  steal  or  rob 
just  as  soon,  if  he  could  do  it  with  equal  honour  and 
safety.  Nothing  does,  nothing  can,  nothing  ever  will 
restrain  an}'  mortal  from  any  indulgence,  pursuit,  gain 
or  abomination  which  he  covets,  and  to  which  no  dis- 
grace is  attached,  except  the  fear  of  God — or,  what  is 
the  same  thing,  religious  principle.  The  most  igno- 
rant pagans,  as  well  as  the  most  enlightened  sages  on 
earth,  are  restrained  by  this  fear,  or  by  this  principle, 
whether  they  are  conscious  of  it  or  not.  I  mean  so  far 
as  they  act  from  principle  at  all — and  without  reference 
to  human  laws  or  opinions.  The  salutary  and  restrain- 
ing influence  of  religion  extends,  in  fact,  throughout  the 
world.  It  is  daily  felt  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  It  is 
apparent  in  the  whole  texture  and  organization  of  hu- 
man society.  All  the  peace,  comfort,  virtue  and  felicity 
in  the  world,  or  which  have  ever  been  in  the  world, 
flow,  and  have  flowed,  from  religion.  In  proportion  as 
pure  religion  prevails,  in  the  same  proportion  do  we  be- 
hold human  nature  approximating  the  purity,  happiness, 
dignity  and  glory  of  angels.  And  in  proportion  as  it  is 
anywhere  neglected,  opposed,  despised,  in  the  same  de- 
gree do  vice,  ignorance  and  misery  abound.  This  is  a 
fact  obvious  to  every  man's  observation. 

It  is  absurd  for  any  man  to  pretend  to  reject  religion 
altogeth  ;r,  because  he  is,  in  spite  of  himself,  religious  or 
superstitious,  in  some  form  or  other,  whether  his  view^s 
be  right  or  wrong.  It  is  madness  and  cruelty,  because, 
were  it  possible  for  him  to  banish  religion  from  our 

VOL.    I.  8 


114  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

world,  he  would  put  an  end  to  civil  government,  to 
social  order  and  to  social  existence.  ^ 

I  shall  not  attempt  to  tell  you  what  religion  implies 
or  inculcates ;  nor,  of  the  many  religions  in  the  world, 
which  is  the  best.  The  worst  is  better  than  none.  I 
have  no  fear  that  any  religion  whatever  will  be  pre- 
ferred to  the  Christian.  I  have  no  fear  that  am'  man, 
who  honestl}'  and  soberly  examines  the  records  and  the 
charter  of  our  religion,  will  ever  fail  to  acknowledge  its 
paramount  claims,  and  to  practise,  at  least  to  approve, 
its  precepts.  And  this  is  all  that  I  now  urge.  Study 
the  Bible  faithfully  and  praj'erfuUy,  and  you  will  learn 
what  true  religion  is.  All  who  do  this,  with  a  proper 
temper  and  spirit,  will  agree  in  essential  points  of  doc- 
trine, as  well  as  in  the  essential  rules  of  conduct.  All 
who  diligentty  study  the  Bible — ^from  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic to  the  Quaker — will  think  and  act  alike  in  all  things 
which  are  important,  and  they  will  never  contend  about 
unimportant  foniis  or  questions.  Were  the  Bible  re- 
sorted to  for  our  theology-  and  our  ethics,  instead  of 
human  teachers  or  systems,  all  bigotry,  fanaticism,  un- 
charitableness  and  persecution  would  disappear  from  the 
Christian  world.  Ignorance  of  the  Bible  is  the  prolific 
source,  not  only  of  error  and  superstition,  but  of  all  that 
demon  spirit  of  party  and  sectarism  which  rages  among 
those  who  profess  the  same  faith,  and  which  keeps 
asunder  brethren  of  the  same  family. 

It  assuredl}^  ill  becomes  those  who  are  liberally  edu- 
cated to  be  illiberal  and  intolerant  on  the  subject  of 
religion,  or  to  manifest  illiberal  hostility  against  it.     Nor 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUKSES.  115 

would  such  an  anomaly  ever  be  witnessed,  were  our 
scholars  to  study  the  Bible  as  carefully  and  profoundly 
as  they  study,  or  profess  to  study  human  science  and 
philosophy.  Simply  as  an  integral  part  of  a  liberal 
education,  it  demands  the  most  thorough  investigation. 
What  right  have  men  to  dispute  and  dogmatize  about 
religion,  when,  in  trutli,  they  know  little  or  nothing  of 
the  Bible,  which  alone  can  teach  it  ?  Who  is  the  self- 
sufficient  bigot,  that  deals  out  anathemas  against  all 
who  do  not  adopt  the  same  peculiar  phraseology  and 
the  same  ceremonial  with  himself?  Who  is  the  sneer- 
ing captious  skeptic,  who  is  ever  railing  at  the  hypocrisy, 
the  credulity,  the  superstition,  the  weakness,  or  the  in- 
consistency of  Christians — as  if  these  were  the  genuine 
fruits  of  Christianity,  or  constituted  any  part  of  its  cha- 
racter ?  Who  is  it  that  deliberately  intrenches  himself 
within  the  strongholds  of  his  own  understanding,  and 
affects  to  yield  to  the  dictates  and  discoveries  of  reason, 
and  to  do  homage  to  the  dignity  of  human  nature  at  the 
expense  of  revelation  ?  Who  is  it  that  denounces  the 
Bible  as  containing  unintelligible  mysteries  and  dogmas 
— as  imposing  rules  and  precepts  too  strict  and  severe 
for  frail  humanity — as  presenting  sanctions,  and  threat- 
ening penalties,  revolting  to  infinite  justice  and  good- 
ness ?  They  are  to  a  man,  ignorant  of  the  Bible,  and 
of  the  heavenly  spirit  which  pervades  it.  They  must 
be  sent  to  school,  before  they  can  be  reasoned  with. 

Happily,  the  reign  of  atheism  has  passed  away.  And 
the  fopperies  of  infidelity  are  no  longer  in  fashion.  Men 
of  sense  are  ashamed  to  avow  the  one,  or  to  exhibit  the 


116  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

other.  Multitudes,  however,  at  the  present  day,— and 
those  too,  frequently,  among  the  most  intelligent  and  in- 
fluential members  of  society — appear  desirous  to  stand 
on  neutral  ground.  Not  aware,  perhaps,  that  the  thing 
is  impossible.  They  neither  oppose  nor  profess  the 
Christian  religion.  They  give  themselves  very  little 
concern  about  the  matter.  They  live  under  its  general 
influence,  and  participate  in  its  general  charities,  and 
seem  to  fancy  themselves  exempt  from  its  more  imme- 
diate and  authoritative  control ;  so  long  as  they  do  not 
submit  to  the  discipline  of  any  particular  church.  As  if 
it  were  at  their  option  to  obey  or  to  disobey  the  divine 
command — to  be  religious  or  irreligious — to  admit  or 
reject  as  much  or  little  of  religion's  precepts  as  may 
comport  with  their  inclination  or  imaginary  interest. 
Now,  this  is  most  egregious  trifling  with  reason  and 
duty — with  themselves  and  their  Maker.  Young  per- 
sons easily  yield  to  these  delusions,  and  are  apt  to  think 
that  religion  is  not  designed  for  them,  and  that  it  ill  be- 
comes them.  Or  that  it  will  render  them  miserable,  or 
singular,  or  unfit  for  the  business  and  concerns  of  the 
world.  I  pass,  however,  all  this  sophistry,  all  these  pre- 
judices, misapprehensions  and  difficulties,  and  again  refer 
3-0U  to  the  Bible  for  instruction. 

If  man  was  made  to  be  rehgious — and  that  he  was, 
universal  experience  proves  beyond  the  possibility-  of  a 
doubt ;  if,  without  rehgion,  he  is  both  worthless  and 
wretched — and  that  he  is,  the  same  experience  as  fully 
demonstrates ;  then  is  religion  necessary,  and  equally  ne- 
cessary to  all  men.     It  is  equally  binding  on  all  men — 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  117 

on  the  lawyer,  the  physician,  the  statesman,  the  sol- 
dier, the  }outhlul  f<tuclent — as  on  the  clergyman,  the 
saint,  or  the  sage  of  fourscore.  It  does  not  consist  in 
particular  acts  or  ceremonies,  nor  is  it  restricted,  in  its 
operations  and  inHuence,  to  particular  times,  places  and 
occasions.  It  regulates  the  temper,  reigns  in  the  heart, 
and  keeps  alive  the  spirit  of  devotion,  of  purity  and 
love,  wherever  we  go,  or  whatever  may  be  our  worldly 
vocation.  In  every  human  pursuit  or  station,  religion 
supplies  the  only  true  principle  of  action,  and  points  out 
the  only  legitimate  ways  and  means  of  success.  Happy 
the  man,  who,  in  every  undertaking,  in  every  purpose, 
and  during  all  his  exertions  and  trials,  can  devoutly  look 
to  God  for  direction,  for  assistance,  for  wisdom,  for  a 
paternal  blessing. 

Finally,  be  courageous.  Dare  to  be  honest,  just,  mag- 
nanimous, true  to  your  God,  to  your  country,  to  your- 
selves, and  to  the  world.  Dare  to  do  to  others  as  you 
would  have  them  do  to  you.  Most  men  are  cowards. 
They  are  afraid  to  speak  and  to  act,  when  duty  calls, 
and  as  duty  requires.  I  recommend  courage  as  a  great 
and  a  rare  virtue.  Few  men  will  suffer  themselves  to 
be  called  cowards ;  and  yet  they  betray  their  cowardice 
by  the  very  course  they  take  to  avenge  the  insult.  A 
man  may  intrepidly  face  the  cannon's  mouth,  and  be  an 
arrant  coward  after  all.  There  is  a  higher,  a  nobler 
courage,  than  was  ever  displayed  in  the  heat  of  battle, 
or  on  the  field  of  carnage. 

There  is  a  moral  courage,  which  enables  a  man  to 
triumph  over  foes  more  formidable  than  were  ever  mar- 


118  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

slialled  by  any  Caesar.  A  courage  which  impels  him  to 
do  his  duty — to  hold  fast  his  integrity — to  maintain  a 
conscience  void  of  oifence  toward  God  and  toward  men 
—  at  every  hazard  and  sacrifice  —  in  defiance  of  the 
world,  and  of  the  prince  of  the  world.  Such  was  the 
courage  of  Moses,  of  Joseph,  of  Daniel,  of  Aristides,  of 
Phocion,  of  Kegulus,  of  Paul,  of  Luther,  of  Washington. 
Such  is  the  courage  which  sustains  every  good  man, 
amidst  the  temptations,  allurements,  honours,  conflicts, 
opposition,  ridicule,  malice,  cruelty,  persecution,  which 
beset  and  threaten  him  at  every  stage  of  his  progress 
through  life.  It  is  not  a  noisy,  obtrusive,  blustering, 
boastful  courage,  which  pushes  itself  into  notice  when 
there  is  no  real  danger,  but  which  shrinks  away  when 
the  enemy  is  at  the  door.  It  is  calm,  self-possessed, 
meek,  gentle,  peaceful,  unostentatious,  modest,  retiring ; 
but  when  the  fearful  hour  arrives,  then  you  shall  be- 
hold the  majesty  of  genuine  Christian  courage,  in  all 
her  native  energy  and  grandeur,  breathing  the  spirit 
of  angelic  purity,  and  grasping  victory  from  the  fiery 
furnace  or  the  lions'  den ;  when  not-  one  of  all  the  mil- 
lions of  this  world's  heroes  would  have  ventured  to  share 
her  fortune. 

I  fear  God,  and  I  have  no  other  fear — is  the  sublimest 
sentiment  ever  felt  or  uttered  by  mortal  man. 

May  each  of  you,  beloved  youth,  living  and  dying,  be 
enabled,  in  sincerity,  before  the  Searcher  of  hearts,  to 
exclaim, — I  fear  God,  and  I  have  no  other  fear. 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS. 


[CUMBERLAND  COLLEGE,  OCTOBER  3,  1S27.] 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS, 

AT   CUMBERLAND   COLLEGE,  1827. 


It  may  be  expected  that  youth,  who  have  been  well 
instructed  in  the  elements  of  science,  will  continue  to 
study  and  to  advance  in  knowledge  while  they  live. 
But  it  is  not  enough  to  know  more  than  others,  or  to  be 
satisfied  with  a  constantly  increasing  store  of  intellectual 
treasures.  A  higher,  a  purer,  a  nobler  end  must  be  kept 
steadily  in  view,  than  any  selfish  gratification  or  interest 
whatever.  "For  unto  whomsoever  much  is  given,  of 
him  shall  be  much  required :  and  to  whom  men  have 
committed  much,  of  him  they  will  ask  the  more." 

Such  are  the  language  and  doctrine  of  universal 
equity  and  reason,  as  Avell  as  of  divine  revelation. 
Human  responsibility  is  everywhere  graduated  accord- 
ing to  the  talents,  knowledge,  privileges,  means,  oppor- 
tunities, power,  influence,  actually  possessed,  or  fairly 
attainable  by  honest  effort  and  industry.  To  whom 
much  is  given — whether  of  genius  and  the  means  of 
ample  cultivation,  or  of  wealth  and  the  usual  facilities 
for  the  proper  use  of  it — of  him  will  much  be  required. 

To   you.  Young   Gentlemen,  your   country  and    the 

world  will  look — they  have  a  right  to  look — for  supe- 

121 


122  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

rior  virtue  and  wisdom,  for  greater  light  and  knowledge, 
for  more  vigorous,  more  persevering,  and  more  successful 
efforts  in  the  cause  of  human  happiness,  than  from  the 
great  mass  of  youth  in  ordinary  circumstances.  It  is 
already  incumbent  on  you  to  ponder  well  and  seriously 
how  you  ought  to  live  and  act,  so  as  to  confer  the  great- 
est benefits  on  your  fellow-men.  For,  the  doing  of  good 
to  others,  according  to  the  measure  of  your  ability,  is 
the  only  return  which  you  can  render  to  God  for  his 
distinguishing  favours  to  you.  This  is  precisely  the 
return  which  he  demands.  This  is  the  scriptural  and 
the  only  rational  test  and  evidence  of  real  gratitude  to 
God.  No  man  can  show  his  gratitude  in  any  otlier  way. 
To  offer  up  to  the  beneficent  Deity,  for  his  daily  bounty, 
mere  verbal  thanks — however  frequent,  loud,  long-con- 
tinued, or  apparently  devout  and  fervent — and  to  do 
nothing  more — is  sheer  hypocrisy  or  fanaticism.  No 
artifice  or  cunning  can  elude  or  make  void  the  great 
law  of  heaven  and  earth,  that,  of  him  to  whom  much 
is  given,  much  shall  be  required.  Nor  can  this  law 
ever  be  transgressed  with  impunity.  If  men  receive 
much,  and  make  no  suitable  return,  they  necessarily 
incur,  and  sooner  or  later,  suffer  the  penalty  of  their 
disobedience.  The  providence  of  God  will  not — does 
not — permit  them  to  escape.  Their  inordinate  wishes, 
their  unhallowed  desires,  may  be  gratified ;  their  selfish 
schemes  may  be  executed;  they  may  achieve  or  gain 
all  that  they  seek  or  aim  at ;  they  may  even  reach  the 
loftiest  pinnacle  to  which  human  ambition  ever  dared  to 
aspire — and  what  then  ?     With  what  emphasis  may  it 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  123 

not  be  said  of  all  sucli — "and  He  gave  them  their  re- 
quest, but  sent  leanness  into  their  soul !" 

Success  is  no  decisive  proof  of  divine  favour,  or  of 
individual  enjoyment.  Could  every  covetous  man  be- 
come a  Croesus,  or  every  ambitious  man  an  Alexander, 
or  every  vain  man  a  A^'oltaire ;  it  does  not  follow  that 
happiness  would,  in  any  degree,  accompany,  or  result 
from,  the  possession  of  riches,  power,  fame,  genius  or 
learning.  These  become  real  blessings  only  as  they  are 
legitimately  acquired,  and  faithfully  employed  for  the 
benefit  of  others  as  well  as  of  ourselves. 

To  be  good,  and  to  do  good,  are  nearly  convertible 
terms,  and  necessarily  imply  each  other.  The  man  who 
wishes  to  do  good,  must  himself  become  good.  And 
again,  every  good  man  will  do  good.  All  your  resolu- 
tions to  do  good  will  avail  nothing,  until  you  first  resolve 
to  be  good.  This  will  prove  a  very  difficult  or  a  very 
easy  task,  according  to  the  standard  by  which  you  esti- 
mate goodness.  There  is  a  superficial  counterfeit  kind 
of  virtue  or  goodness  which  passes  very  current  in  the 
world,  and  which  is  of  easy  acquisition.  I  shall  not 
stop  to  describe  it.  Fashionable  life  and  fashionable 
reading  may  be  consulted  for  its  true  character  and 
value. 

Genuine  goodness  or  virtue  consists  in  perfect  obe- 
dience to  the  divine  law.  I  offer  no  proof  of  this  posi- 
tion ;  because,  if  there  be  a  divine  law,  none  will  deny 
that  it  is  our  duty  to  obey  it.  I  now  take  for  granted 
that  there  is  a  divme  law ;  and  that  this  law  is  recorded 
and  explained  in  the  Bible.    By  goodness  or  virtue  then. 


124  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

I  mean  such  moral  excellence  as  the  Bible  requires  and 
inculcates.     Whether  men  generally  obey  the  divine  law 
at  all,  or  to  any  considerable  extent — whether  any  obey 
it  perfectly,  or  whether  any  can  do  this — I  leave  to  the 
decision  of  those  who  are  best  acquainted  with  the  Bible 
and  with  the  human  heart.     That  the  law  is  holy,  just 
and  good;   that  it  ought  therefore  to  be  obeyed;    and 
that  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  for  man,  constituted  and 
circumstanced  as  he  is,  fully  to  obey  it,  will  not  be  ques- 
tioned by  those  men  who  are  universally  acknowledged 
to  be  the  wisest  and  most  virtuous  of  mankind.     While, 
on  the  other  hajid,  those  men  who  proclaim  it  to  be  a 
very  easy  matter  to  be  good  enough,  or  to  do  all  that  is 
required  of  them,  are  precisely  such   as  are  not  most 
remarkable  for  kindness  and  purity  of  heart  or  conduct. 
The  same  law  which  says — ''Thou  shalt  not  kill — 
Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  —  also  says  —  "Thou  shalt  not 
take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain.     Thou 
shalt  not  covet  anything  that  is  thy  neighbour's.     Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart — and 
thy  neighbour  as  thyself."     Nay  further — "Love  your 
enemies,  bless  them  that  curse  you ;    do  good  to  them 
that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  which  despitefully  use 
you  and  persecute  you.      If  ye  forgive  not  men  their 
trespasses,  neither  will  your  [heavenly]  Father  forgive 
your  trespasses.     And  as  ye  would  that  men  should  do 
to  you,  do  ye  also  to  them  likewise."     Such  is  a  speci- 
men of  the  spirit  and  extent  of  the  divine  law — of  the 
morality  of  the  Bible — of  the  celestial  purity  and  chari- 
table constitution  of  the  Christian  religion. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  125 

In  the  Bible  you  will  learn,  both,  what  you  are  com- 
manded to  become,  and  what  you  are  commanded  to 
perform.  And  truly,  the  path  of  virtue  and  duty  is 
steep  and  arduous.  But  it  is  a  law  of  our  nature  that 
nothing  valuable  can  be  acquired  without  labour.  The 
highest  virtue — and  consequently  the  highest  honour 
and  happiness — can  be  attained  only  by  constant  per- 
severing vigilance  and  effort,  agreeably  to  the  divine 
w^ill,  and  when  crowned  wdth  the  divine  blessing.  Com- 
mence the  great  business  of  life  then,  in  the  fear  of  the 
Lord.  This  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  Refer  every 
purpose  and  every  action  to  the  w^ill  of  God  :  and  ever 
have  in  vieAv,  not  your  own  interest  and  gratification 
merely,  but  the  happiness  and  comfort  of  those  around 
you. 

Wherever  you  reside,  there  study  to  do  all  the  good  in 
your  power.  I  say  study, — for  much  laborious  investi- 
gation, much  anxious  reflection,  much  hard-earned  in- 
formation may  be  necessary  to  enable  the  soundest 
judgment,  frequently,  to  decide  on  the  best  plans  and 
means  of  attaining  the  most  benevolent  objects.  It  is 
not  enough  to  be  willing  to  do  good,  or  to  desire  to  do 
(rood — we  must  spare  no  pains  to  acquire  all  the  know- 
ledge that  may  aid  us  in  doing  it  in  the  best  manner 
and  to  the  greatest  extent.  ImMent  benevolence — if 
its  existence  be  possible  —  or  ill-directed,  misapplied 
benevolence  may  do  as  much  injury  as  avowed  selfish- 
ness or  misanthropy  itself. 

Young  persons  are  apt  to  fancy  that  they  would  like 
to  do  "ood  on  a  grand  scale — to  be  great  benefactors — 


126  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

to  immortalize  their  names — to  fill  the  world  with  the 
fame  of  their  disinterested,  patriotic,  noble,  philanthropic 
achievements — to  become  the  Luther,  the  Columbus,  the 
Howard,  the  Franklin,  or  the  Washington  of  the  age. 
This  however  may  be  a  very  selfish,  pitiful  ambition — a 
mere  coveting  of  the  renown,  the  glory,  or  the  more  sub- 
stantial rewards,  which  such  men,  sooner  or  later,  re- 
ceive from  the  equity  and  gratitude  of  mankind.  I 
mean  not  to  discourage  you  from  aiming  high — very 
high — even  at  the  loftiest  mark.  "  Be  3^e  perfect,  even 
as  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect,"  But  do 
not  mistake  your  own  views  and  motives.  Every  emi- 
nent man,  who  has  been  good  as  well  as  great,  has  served 
a  long  and  laborious  apprenticeship  (and  most  probably) 
in  a  comparatively  humble  and  narrow  sphere.  He  has 
been  content  to  do  good  every  day  to  the  extent  of  his 
means  and  opportunities,  without  ever  dreaming  of  the 
honours  and  the  homage  which  awaited  him.  Present 
duty,  uot  future  distinction,  was  the  moving  principle 
and  spring  of  action.  Unhallowed  ambition  may  indeed 
conduct  its  votary  to  a  throne  :  and  the  world  shall  call 
him  great:  but  the  world — the  impartial  world — will 
never  pronounce  him  good. 

Your  field  of  labour  may,  at  first,  be  very  limited. 
Cultivate  it  diligently,  and  it  will  gradually  enlarge. 
Be  faithful  in  a  few  things :  more  will  presently  be 
intrusted  to  your  care.  Your  sphere  of  duty  will  widen 
on  every  side,  just  in  proportion  to  your  industry  and 
fidelity.  And  although  your  deeds  may  never  be  cele- 
brated in  the  records  of  this  world's  immortality, — still 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  127 

your  reward  will  be  sure,  as  well  as  adequate  and  satis- 
factory. 

So  long  as  ignorance  and  poverty,  vice  and  misery 
exist  in  our  land  and  in  the  world,  so  long  at  least,  will 
be  found  an  ample  province  for  humane  and  beneficent 
enterprise.  In  every  hamlet  and  village — in  every  in- 
habited section  of  our  country — there  is  much  to  be  done 
for  suffering  and  degraded  humanity.  I  am  not  going 
to  enter  into  much  detail  on  this  fruitful  topic.  I  will 
barely  specify  two  or  three  evils  to  which  youth  are 
peculiarly  exposed — which  everywhere  prevail  to  an 
alarming  extent — which  it  becomes  us  all  most  sedu- 
lously to  avoid  ourselves,  and  to  do  what  we  can 
through  life  to  preserve  others  from  their  destructive 
influence. 

Hitherto,  mankind  have  been  disputing  and  contend- 
ing chiefly  about  errors  and  heresies  of  a  purely  specula- 
tive character :  as  if  virtue,  and  happiness,  and  heaven 
depended  on  the  use  of  certain  w^ords  and  phrases ;  or 
upon  the  implicit  acknowledgment  of  certain  proposi- 
tions and  doctrines,  which,  in  their  very  nature,  per- 
haps, involve  considerations  absolutely  beyond  the  pro- 
vince of  human  reason — while  practical  truth  has  been 
comparatively  overlooked.  Now,  practical  truth,  or 
truth  which  directly  and  necessarily  influences  human 
conduct,  is  the  only  species  of  truth  with  which  the 
philanthropist  is  immediately  concerned.  Casuists, 
theologians,  metaphysicians,  may  argue  and  speculate 
(in  the  same  manner  as  they  frequently  have  done) 
forever,  without  contributing   one   iota   to  human  im- 


128  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

proveinent  and  happiness :  while  the  humblest  indi- 
vidual, who  points  out  to  his  neighbour  a  mojde  of 
obtaining  an  honest  livehhood,  ought  to  be  esteemed 
a  greater  benefactor  than  all  of  them  put  together. 
But  the  reign  of  m^-sterious  absurdity  and  unmeaning 
verhiafje,  we  trust,  will  have  an  end — and  that  men  will 
be  induced  to  direct  their  energies  to  the  melioration  of 
the  character  and  condition  of  their  fellow-men.  Many 
sentiments  and  usages  which  have  been  sanctioned  by 
the  authority  and  wisdom  of  ages,  and  the  propriety  of 
which,  none  perhaps,  at  the  present  day,  will  venture  to 
call  in  question,  are  destined  hereafter,  we  believe,  to  be 
renounced  and  condemned  as  erroneous  and  immoral. 

The  progress  of  practical  moral  truth  is  extremely 
slow.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  claims  of  mankind  gene- 
rally upon  Christian  benevolence  were  not  recognized, 
in  any  considerable  degree,  prior  to  the  commencement 
of  the  present  century,  nor  are  they  even  yet,  except  to 
a  very  partial  and  limited  extent :  and  the  slave  trade 
itself  was  not  denounced  until  within  the  memory  of  the 
living  generation.  The  habits  of  society  cannot  be  easily 
changed;  and  it  is  but  seldom  that  any  one  dares  to 
oppose  them. 

Whatever  is,  is  rigid,  is  a  maxim  of  no  small  influence 
in  fact,  even  where  its  correctness  would  not  be  acknow- 
ledged in  terms. 

"  We  must  take  society  as  it  is,  not  as  it  sliould  he,"  is 
the  usual  apology  for  whatever  evils  happen  to  be  tole- 
rated in  the  community. 

"We  must  enact  laws  to  encouraa-e  the  manufacture 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  129 

of  domestic  spirits,  (pleads  the  politician,)  for  though 
the  people  may  be  ruined  in  soul,  body  and  estate,  by 
the  excessive  use  of  this  physical  and  moral  poison,  yet 
we  must  legislate  for  men  as  they  are,  not  as  they  miglit 
be." 

"  If  I  do  not  sell  the  liquor  that  intoxicates  my  neigh- 
bour, some  one  else  will" — says  the  publican,  while  he 
deliberately  pockets  the  price  of  his  brother's  infamy  and 
perdition. 

In  these  instances,  I  advert  to  only  one  mode  of  the 
operation  of  only  one  false  principle  or  assumption — and 
who  can  calculate  the  misery  which  it  every  day  diffuses 
throughout  the  entire  population  of  our  country?  Who 
can  estimate  the  evil  of  intemperance  ? 

Whence  is  it  that  our  prisons  and  penitentiaries  — 
erected  at  a  cost  of  many  millions  of  dollars  —  are 
crowded  with  convicts,  supported  at  an  annual  charge 
to  the  public  of  millions  more  ?  Whence  is  it  that  our 
poor  houses  and  poor  rates,  private  charities  and  bene- 
volent associations,  are  unable  to  satisfy  the  dail}'  in- 
creasing demands  of  clamorous  pauperism?  Let  the 
officers  and  the  records  of  all  these  institutions — let  the 
dispensers  of  a  nation's  justice  and  of  a  nation's  alms — 
answer  the  inquiry.  They  will  tell  you  that  three- 
fourths,  nay  frequently,  that  nine-tenths  of  these  crimi- 
nals and  paupers  have  been  ruined  by  intemperance. 

It  has  been  computed  from  authentic  data,  and  pub- 
lished to  the  world,  that,  during  the  last  year,  more  than 
ten  thousand  of  our  citizens  Avere  cut  off,  in  the  midst  of 
their  days,  by  this  one  fell  scourge.     That,  at  least,  fiftj' 


130  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

thousand  more  were  destroyed  by  diseases  occasioned 
by  intemperance.  And  that  there  are  three  hiyidred 
thousand  drunkards  now  living,  or  rather  dying,  in  our 
country. 

It  is  moreover  ascertained  that,  at  least,  fifty  millions 
of  gallons  of  distilled  Uquors,  foreign  and  domestic,  are 
annually  consumed  by  our  people.  Suppose  the  average 
price  to  the  consumer  to  be  fifty  cents  per  gallon,  then 
the  amount  expended  annually  on  this  object  will  be 
twenty-five  millions  of  dollars.  And  the  pauperism  occar 
sioned  thereby  is  estimated  to  cost  some  ten  or  fifteen 
millions  more. 

Taking  the  population  of  the  United  States  at  twelve 
millions,  and  that  of  Tennessee  at  six  hundred  thousand, 
then  Avill  Tennessee,  at  the  same  rate  of  consumption, 
expend  |1, 250,000  a  year  for  ardent  spirits  alone ;  and, 
in  ten  years,  $12,500,000,  without  allowing  for  any  in- 
crease whatever  in  numbers,  and  without  reckoning  the 
interest  of  the  money  thus  annually  expended.  How 
far,  permit  me  to  ask  in  passing,  might  such  a  sum  go 
towards  providing  the  ways  and  means  of  educating  our 
children  ? — of  creating  a  permanent  school  fund  for  the 
benefit  of  every  family  in  the  commonwealth  ? 

That  I  may  not  be  thought  to  have  presented  an  ex- 
aggerated statement  relative  to  Tennessee,  I  will  add, 
that,  it  has  been  recently  communicated  to  the  public, 
from  very  high  authority,  that  the  annual  expenditure  for 
intoxicating  liquors  in  Massachusetts  exceeds  $1,300,000 
for  a  population  of  only  550,000.  I  am  willing  to  believe 
that  we  are  not  quite  so  bad  in  this  respect  as  our  East- 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  131 

em  brethren,  and  hence  the  estimate  just  given  is  much 
more  favourable. 

Drunkenness  however,  it  cannot  be  denied,  is  sapping 
the  foundation  of  morals — is  filling  the  country  with 
miscreants  and  vagaljonds,  with  beggars  and  felons — is 
imposing  burdens  on  the  rich  and  ruining  the  poor — is 
impairing  public  virtue  and  destroying  domestic  peace — 
is  not  only  diminishing  the  enjoyments  of  this  life,  but 
jeoparding  the  hopes  of  a  better — is  already  an  evil 
more  tremendous  and  threatening  than  war,  or  famine. 
or  pestilence,  or  than  all  combined — and  is  continualh- 
increasing  in  a  ratio  which  baffles  calculation,  and  which. 
in  a  few  years,  may  defy  all  control. 

Is  there  not  scope  here  for  the  most  active  and  in- 
trepid benevolence  ?  Who  will  deliver  his  country  from 
the  deadh-  grasp  of  this  mauj-headed  monster ?  Who 
will  devise  a  remedy  for  this  most  fatal  disease  Avhich  is 
already  preying  upon  the  vitals  of  the  Republic  ? 

Many  remedies  have  been  proposed  —  the  merits  of 
which  I  shall  not  stop  to  investigate.  I  pass  all  medical 
prescriptions.  I  say  nothing  of  the  expediency  of  legis- 
lative interference.  Nor  shall  I  expatiate  on  the  benefits 
that  might  be  expected  from  the  extensive  and  general 
cultivation  of  the  vine.  I  merely  hint  at  the  principal 
remedy  which  ice  can  immediately  apply — and  M'hich 
each  of  us  can  apply — and  which  is  strictly  of  the  moral 
and  preventive  character.  By  our  example,  our  counsel, 
our  instructions,  we  may  do  much.  We  can  ourselves 
abstain  altogether  from  the  use  of  ardent  spirits — banish 
them  from  our  tables,  from  our  houses,  from  our  farms, 


132  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

from  our  labourers,  from  every  place  over  wliicli  we  ex- 
ercise control.  This  we  can  do.  And  this,  every  motive 
and  consideration  of  patriotism,  benevolence,  and  Chris- 
tian duty  should  constrain  us  to  do  while  we  live.  If  all 
virtuous  reflecting  men,  all  honourable  influential  men, 
all  college  graduates,  all  reverend  clergymen,  would  do 
this,  the  evil  would  be  effectually  checked,  and  it  would 
rapidly  diminish. 

How  much  of  this  very  evil  indeed  is  ftiirly  attribut- 
able to  the  countenance  which  such  men  have  given  to 
it  ?  They  have  made  it  customary  and  fashionable  to 
drmk  on  all  joyous  and  festive  occasions — to  treat  each 
other  at  every  social  visit — and  thus  to  be  continually 
presenting  temptation,  in  the  most  alluring  form,  espe- 
cially to  the  young  and  inexperienced.  For  to  them 
nothing  usually  is  so  difficult  to  resist  as  the  claims  or 
prescriptions  of  fashion.  Here  then  the  evil  must  be 
arrested.  The  fashion  must  be  changed.  Ardent  spirits 
of  every  description  must  be  forever  proscribed,  and 
exiled  from  good  company.  In  reference  to  this  most 
insidious  and  direful  bane  of  human  peace  and  virtue, 
the  motto  of  every  young  man,  who  aims  at  being  good 
or  great,  should  be — "touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not." 
With  this  enemy  hold  no  parley — make  no  treaty,  truce 
or  compromise.  To  hesitate,  to  listen,  to  tamper,  is  to 
yield  the  victory;  and,  perhaps,  to  yield  it  forever. 

I  urge  this  point  with  all  possible  earnestness,  because 
it  is  so  completely  overlooked  by  the  young,  and  l)ecause 
a  failure  here  is  blasting  to  all  their  hopes.  It  will  be 
death  to  all  their  golden  dreams  and  prospects  of  earthly 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUKSES.  133 

bliss  and  earthly  honour.  It  -will  make  few  their  days : 
and  will  render  those  few  a  burden  and  a  curse  to  them- 
selves, to  their  friends,  and  to  the  world.  I  urge  it  with 
affectionate  importunity,  because  I  have  seen  issue  from 
colleges,  consecrated  to  science,  to  virtue,  and  to  piety, 
most  melancholy  and  heart-rending  examples  of  all  the 
misery  of  which  youthful  intemperance,  in  its  various 
forms,  is  capable.  Ah,  ni}-  young  friends,  did  you  know 
the  grief — the  torture — which  3'ou  may  inflict  in  the 
bosoms  of  those  who  love  you  most,  and  who  would 
esteem  no  sacrifice  too  great  to  save  you  from  the  snares 
which  beset  your  path,  you  would  dash  from  your  lips 
the  proffered  cup,  and  spurn  with  indignation  from  your 
sight,  the  wretch  who  would  seduce  you  from  wisdom's 
ways. 

Why  is  it  that  the  scenes  of  intemperate  mirth  and 
revelry — the  haunts  of  folly  and  dissipation — nay  the 
very  sinks  of  iniquity  and  abomination — are  so  often 
sought  and  frequented  ?  Where  shall  we  find  an  ade- 
quate, or  even  a  specious  apology  for  such  madness? 
Why  is  it  that  the  dictates  and  counsels  of  wisdom  are 
so  often  contemned  by  youth,  when  associated  for  the 
noblest  purposes — when  engaged  in  the  most  exalted 
and  grateful  pursuits — when  professedly  submitting  to 
that  course  of  discipline  and  culture  which  will  prepare 
them  to  lead  the  way  in  honour's  high  career,  and  to 
ascend  the  loftiest  steeps  of  human  greatness  ? — To  say 
nothing  of  other  and  nobler  ends  to  which  well  directed 
and  sanctified  learning  is  ever  subservient.  Surely,  if 
there  be  anything  in  human  prospects  alluring  and  en- 


134  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUESES. 

couraging;  anything  in  itself  calculated  to  impart 
stability  to  character;  anything  to  deter  from,  gross 
and  destructive  vice;  anything  to  prompt  to  enter- 
prise and  exertion;  the  privileged  student  or  graduate 
of  a  college  is  the  individual,  above  all  others,  who 
should  be  the  farthest  removed  from  all  that  is  grovel- 
ling and  mean  and  licentious.  It  is  he,  if  any  one  on 
earth,  whom  we  should  expect  to  see  asserting  the  dig- 
Aity  of  his  nature,  and  manfully  contending  for  the 
noblest  prize  within  the  grasp  of  mortality. 

I  proceed  to  the  consideration  or  exposure  of  another 
evil — which,  like  intemperance,  may  aptly  be  denomi- 
nated Legion — for  it  is  the  cause  or  fountain  of  many 
evils.  I  mean  the  tyranny  of  custom  or  fashion.  We 
have  seen  that  intemperance  occasions  most  of  the 
crime,  and  poverty  and  wretchedness  in  our  country; 
and  that  no  small  portion  of  this  very  intemperance  is 
the  natural  result  of  the  general  and  fashionable  use  of 
inebriating  liquors. 

But  the  despotism  of  fashion  extends  far  and  wide — 
pervades  all  departments  of  human  thought  and  action 
—  controls  opinion  —  determines  principles  —  regulates 
manners  and  conduct  —  and  moulds  the  passions  and 
affections  at  pleasure. 

I  need  not  advert  to  its  resistless  sway  over  the  whole 
mass  of  human  expenditure,  beyond  the  bare  necessaries 
of  existence — over  the  dress,  the  equipage,  the  furniture, 
the  table,  the  entertainments,  the  amusements,  the  edu- 
cation, the  accomplishments,  of  the  whole  civilized  world 
— for  here  its  absolute  dominion  has  never  been  ques- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  135 

tioiied.      And  how  dreadful  the  bondage   is — how  ex- 
cruciating the  tortures  of  the  hapless  victims — may  be 
witnessed  every  day  by  any  man  who  will  open  his  eyes 
upon  what  is  passing  around  him — upon  the  anxious 
struggle,  the  sacrifice  of  peace  and  comfort,  made  by  the 
several  classes  of  the  people  in  order  to  reach  or  surpass 
those  who  are  looked  up  to  iis  fasJdonable  and  honovrahle. 
Very  rich  men  ma}-  indulge  their  vanity  and  ostentation 
and  caprice,  without  any  pecuniary  embarrassment  or 
inconvenience.     Not  so  with  the  host  of  inconsiderate 
imitators,  of  smaller  fortunes,  or  of  no  fortune  at  all.     A 
rich  man,  it  is  true,  ought  not,  in  regulating  his  per- 
sonal or  family  expenses,  merely  to  consult  the  extent 
of  his  own  means.     He  ought,  in  duty,  to  consider  what 
his  poorer  neighbours  can  afford ;  because  they  will  be 
sure  to  follow  his  example ;    and  that,  too,  precisely  in 
things  the  least  useful,  or  entirely  superfluous,  or  posi- 
tively injurious   to   health    and  morals,   as  well  as  to 
property.     For  the  fact  is,  however  absurd,  that,  when 
any  amusement,  vice  or  pleasure  becomes  fashionable, 
then  will  thousands  throw  away  their  scanty  and  hard- 
earned  pittance,  in  order  to  participate  in  the  indul- 
gences, the  follies  and  the  extravagancies  of  the  great, 
and  to  dissipate  and  sIkjvj  off  among  those  whom  they 
fooUshly  account  their  hetters.    "  Pride  (says  Franklin)  is 
a  beggar  quite  as  clamorous  as  want,  but  infinitely  more 
insatiable." 

Thus  is  it  also  in  regard  to  opinions  which  govern  the 
world.  There  is,  for  instance,  "  the  Law  of  Honour" — 
as  distinct  from  the  law  of  the  land,  and  from  the  law 


136  EDUCATIOI"^  AL    DISCOUESES. 

of  God.  "It  is  a  system  of  rules  constructed  by  people 
of  fashion" — and  for  their  own  special  benefit  and,  con- 
venience,— without  the  slightest  recognition  of  the 
duties  which  they  owe  to  their  Maker, — or  to  the  mass 
of  the  people,  who  are  heartily  despised  as  their  in- 
feriors. 

"For  which  reason  (says  Paley)  profaneness,  neglect 
of  jDublic  worship  or  private  devotion,  cruelty  to  ser- 
vants, rigorous  treatment  of  tenants  or  other  dependents, 
want  of  charity  to  the  poor,  injuries  done  to  tradesmen 
by  insolvency  or  delay  of  payment,  with  numberless  ex- 
amples of  the  same  kind,  are  accounted  no  breaches  of 
honour,  because  a  man  is  not  a  less  agreeable  companion 
for  these  vices,  nor  the  worse  to  deal  with,  in  those  con- 
cerns which  are  usually  transacted  between  one  gentle- 
man and  another.  Again — the  Law  of  Honour,  being 
constituted  by  men  occupied  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure, 
will  be  found,  in  most  instances,  favourable  to  the  licen- 
tious indulgence  of  the  natural  passions."  Thus  it  allows 
of  drunkenness,  prodigality,  duelling,  revenge,  gaming, 
and  almost  every  species  of  sensuality  and  dissipation, 
provided  the  fashionable  mode  be  duly  observed. 

This  Law  of  Honour,  with  many  other  equally  pre- 
cious institutions,  we  have  inherited  from  our  European 
ancestry.  And  although  we  acknowledge  among  our- 
selves neither  nobility  nor  gentry — Avith  Avhom,  and  for 
whom  exclusively,  this  law  originated,  and  by  whom  it 
is  still  sustained  in  the  old  world — yet  so  ambitious  are 
we  of  whatever  savours  of  JiigJi  life,  that,  without  family, 
or  estate,  or  royal  favour,  or  legal  immunities,  we  have 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  137 

introduced  all  the  pompous  phraseology  and  all  the 
aristociatic  usages  of  that  very  country  whose  right  to 
govern  us  we  have  long  since  disclaimed  and  forever 
renounced. 

The  subject,  indeed,  assumes  an  aspect  sufficiently 
ludicrous  to  be  left  to  the  ridicule  and  contempt  of  men 
of  sense;  were  it  not  for  the  serious  interests  which  it 
involves,  and  the  blmd  infatuation  of  our  countrymen  in 
regard  to  it.  Already  we  have  among  us  an  order  of 
men — a  \eiy  large  one  too — styled  gentlemen ;  as  con- 
tradistinguished from  the  rest  of  the  people.  What  it 
is  that  constitutes  a  gentleman,  in  ordinary  parlance,  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  define.  Perhaps  wealth,  or  the 
appearance  of  it,  may  be  assumed  as  the  main  or  indis- 
pensable requisite.  At  any  rate,  we  every  day  see 
money  transforming  clowns  and  fools  and  blockheads — 
and  even  not  a  few  rogues  and  knaves — into  marvellous 
fine  gentlemen. 

Our  concern  at  present,  however,  is  simply  with  this 
code  of  honour — this  English,  European,  aristocratic 
code — which  our  American  gentlemen  have  adopted  as 
their  own. 

Like  their  transatlantic  superiors — I  have  a  right  to 
the  term  superiors,  however  offensive ;  for  in  this  matter 
at  least,  they  are  servile  copyists,  mere  humble  and  de- 
spised imitators  of  what  they  can  never  effectualh^  reach 
— like  their  transatlantic  superiors  then,  they  affect  to 
be  entirely  above — and  too  often  prove  themselves  to  be 
above — the  laws  of  their  country.  With  these  laws,  in- 
deed, they  have  no  concern,  except,  it  may  be,  to  aid  in 


138  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

manufacturing  them  for  the  benefit  of  the  meaner  sort. 
And  as  to  penal  statutes — prisons,  gibbets — these  were 
all  contrived  for  the  vulgar — for  poor  beggarly  plebeians. 
A  gentleman,  of  the  true  imier,  has  no  fear  of  them,  and 
no  need  of  them.  His  pistol  or  dagger  will  answer  every 
purpose  of  judge,  jury  and  executioner.  He  habitually 
walks  abroad  in  all  the  conscious  dignity  of  irresponsible 
freedom  and  independence.  And  even  our  little  masters 
—  the  hopeful  sons  of  most  gallant  sires — long  before 
they  ought  to  be  trusted  out  of  their  mothers'  sight, 
sally  forth  to  do  valiant  deeds  in  the  village  streets  or 
village  school ;  and  show  their  spirit  and  their  breeding 
by  the  seasonable  display  of  that  most  knightly — most 
gentlemanly  weapon — the  Dirk. 

Again — Our  gentleman  is  a  perfect  pink  of  honesty 
and  fair  dealing.  He  will  not  steal  your  horse  or  your 
purse ;  he  will  not  counterfeit  the  coin  of  his  country, 
or  forge  a  note  upon  his  neighbour; — this  would  be 
vulgar,  and  consequently,  infamous.  Whether  he  is 
always  equally  scrupulous  about  appropriating  to  his 
own  use  the  property  of  others,  under  some  one  or 
other  of  the  ten  thousand  specious,  genteel,  fashionable 
forms  and  pretexts,  with  wdiich  honourable  men  are 
sufficiently  familiar — I  respectfully  submit  to  the  de- 
cision of  those  most  competent  to  judge. 

His  veracity  is  never  to  be  questioned  with  impunity. 
He  will  not  violate  his  promise  or  his  word,  nor  injure 
your  reputation,  if  you  happen  to  pass  for  a  gentleman, 
or  belong  to  society.  No,  no — upon  these  points  he  is 
exquisitely  tender,  delicate  and  guarded.     But  he  may 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  139 

unblushingly,  and  greatly  to  his  honour,  resort  to  all 
manner  of  artifice  and  deceit,  of  falsehood  and  perjury, 
in  order  to  win  and  to  betray  the  confidence  of  unsus- 
pecting female  innocence  :  and  thus  blast  forever  the 
prospects,  the  character,  the  happiness  of  an  honest 
family,  in  every  just  sense  of  the  term,  incomparably 
his  superior. 

There  is,  too,  the  gentleman  gamester ;  as  well  as  the 
hardened,  crafty,  unprincipled  gambler.  The  practice 
of  gaming,  I  believe,  is  countenanced  throughout  the 
world  of  fashion ;  while,  the  vice  of  low,  vulgar,  petty 
gambling  is  universally  censured  and  denounced,  as 
ruinous  to  the  morals  and  industry  of  the  common 
people.  Between  the  practice  and  the  vice,  as  exhibited 
in  the  drawing-room  and  the  alehouse,  I  leave  it  to  the 
casuist  and  the  lawyer  to  point  out  the  moral  distinction 
and  to  calculate  the  difference.  Of  the  horrible  effects 
of  gambling,  as  witnessed  in  most  of  the  European  capi- 
tals and  in  the  larger  cities  of  our  own  country,  it  would 
be  impossible,  by  any  language,  to  convey  an  adequate 
idea. 

It  will  not  be  inferred  from  anything  already  said, 
that  I  lay  to  the  charge  of  all  persons  who  are  regarded 
as  gentlemen,  the  whole  or  any  part  of  the  sins  and  fol- 
lies j  ast  hinted  at.  I  imagine,  however,  that  I  shall  not 
be  misunderstood.  There  are  gentlemen  who  w^ould  do 
none  of  these  things — who  bear  themselves  more  loftily 
— whose  moral  tone  and  spirit,  whose  wisdom  and  virtue 
shed  a  lustre  upon  talent  and  station — ^but  who,  after  all, 
are  subject  to  the  law  of  honour,  in  some  of  its  worst 


140  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

claims  and  features. — Who  dare  not  exhibit  the  courage 
and  the  independence  which  in  heart  they  approve-  and 
admire. 

Such  a  gentleman  would  shudder  at  the  thought  of 
murder  or  assassination  —  nay  he  would  scorn  to  ap- 
pear discourteous  or  unkmd — he  may  be  most  humane, 
tender,  gentle,  amiable  and  benevolent  in  temper  and 
practice — but  he  will,  when  the  law  of  honour  requires, 
call  you  out,  bid  you  defend  yourself,  and  shoot  you  or 
submit  to  be  shot,  Avith  as  much  apparent  coolness  and 
indifference,  as  if  he  were  the  sovereign  arbiter  of  life 
and  death.  He  must  do  this  or  lose  caste — forfeit  his 
standing  in  society — and  be  sneered  at  as  a  coward  or  a 
saint.  And  who  could  brook  the  disgrace  of  being  re- 
puted '•  to  obey  God  rather  than  men"  ?  Who  cuuld 
forgive  an  injury  or  an  insult,  whether  real  or  imagi- 
nary, great  or  small,  accidental  or  designed,  with  true 
Christian  meekness  and  magnanimity?  Or  who  could 
pass  unnoticed  an  offence,  however  trivial  or  ideal  or 
constructive,  when  his  peers  j^i'oclaim  that  blood  alone 
can  expiate  the  oflender's  guilt,  or  satisfy  the  behests  of 
this  inexorable  law  ? 

I  upbraid  not  individuals.  They  merely  participate 
in  the  bondage  and  the  infatuation  of  general  sentiment 
and  custom.  So  long  as  the  infatuation  and  bondage 
obtain,  so  long  are  all  men  of  honour  duellists  virtually, 
whether  they  ever  fight  a  duel  or  not.  Because  all 
acknowledge  the  same  principles,  and  countenance  the 
practice.  I  advert  to  it,  not  in  the  spirit  of  the  cynic  or 
illiberal  censor — not  for  the  purpose  of  personal  rebuke 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  141 

or  crimination  or  reproach — nor  as  a  convenient  topic 
for  harsh  inYecti\'e  or  loose  declamation.  But  because 
it  is  a  great  and  growing  evil  —  a  national  evil  —  the 
plague  and  disgrace  of  the  Christian  world : — and  with 
a  view  to  its  correction  and  removal. 

Cannot  the  code  of  lionour,  which  compels  honourable 
men  to  fight  duels,  be  repealed  or  abrogated  ?  In  its 
favour  or  defence,  I  have  never  read  or  heard  one  argu- 
ment, or  the  shadow  of  an  argument,  advanced  from  any 
quarter  or  by  any  individual.  It  is,  on  the  contrary, 
universally  condemned  by  duellists  themselves — whether 
successful  or  unfortunate — in  the  hour  of  victory  or  of 
death  —  frequently  before,  and  always  after  the  fatal 
meeting.  Thej'  generally  speak  of  it  in  terms  of  repro- 
bation, and  lament  the  tyranny  of  custom,  which  drives 
them,  however  reluctant  and  at  whatever  sacrifice,  to 
mortal  combat — merely  to  satisfy  the  wanton,  the  capri- 
cious, the  abominable,  the  fiend-like  demands  of  an  arbi- 
trary tribunal — which  is  nowhere  visible  or  tangible, — 
which  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  a  local  habitation  or  a 
name,  and  which,  nevertheless,  is  universally  and  im- 
plicitly obeyed,  in  open  and  reckless  defiance  of  all  that 
is  good,  and  just,  and  kind,  and  merciful,  and  holy,  and 
dreadful,  in  earth  or  heaven  ! 

Is  this  a  custom  or  a  law  which  is,  in  its  own  nature, 
everlasting  and  unalterable  ? — which  is  never  to  pass 
away  into  the  darkness  and  oblivion  which  have  long 
since  shrouded  most  other  Gothic  absurdities  and  enor- 
mities? As  the  law  now  stands,  a  man  must,  in  certain 
cases,  give  or  accept  a  challenge,  or  men  of  honour  will 


142  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

not  countenance  or  acknowledge  him  as  a  gentleman. 
Such  is  the  law,  and  such  is  the  penalty.  Now,  lei  me 
ask,  cannot  these  same  men  of  honour,  whoever  they  are 
or  wherever  to  he  found,  put  down  this  law,  extirpate 
this  relic  of  feudal  barbarism,  and  decree  that  no  gentle- 
man shall  henceforth  fight  a  duel,  under  precisely  the 
same  penal  sanctions — namely,  the  forfeiture  of  his  place 
in  society  as  a  gentleman  or  man  of  honour?  Could  they 
not  as  easily  abolish  the  law  as  they  now  sustain  it? 
Especially,  as  they  all  agree  in  denouncing  it,  and  as  the 
rest  of  the  world  would  heartily  approve  the  measure. 
I  verily  believe  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  some  twenty 
individuals,  in  each  of  these  States,  by  acting  in  concert 
and  with  decision,  to  render  it  as  ungentlemanly,  as  dis- 
honourable, as  infamous,  to  fight  a  duel,  as  it  now^  is  to 
commit  any  felony  whatever.  The  object  is  at  least 
worth  the  experiment. 

If  it  were  ever  expedient  to  summon  a  national  coun- 
cil or  convention,  to  devise  plans  of  deliverance  from 
oppression,  or  to  seek  a  redress  of  grievances,  then  is  it 
now  expedient ;  for  we  are  literally  perishing  under  a 
moral  slavery  the  most  ruinous,  burdensome  and  de- 
grading. And  the  man,  or  the  men,  who  shall  succeed 
in  rescuing  the  Eepublic  from  the  despotism  of  opinion 
— who  shall  break  down  the  dominion  of  intemperance, 
of  gambling,  of  duelling — will  deserve  higher  honour 
than  has  been  awarded  to  the  sages,  heroes  and  martyrs 
of  our  glorious  revolution. 

Having  thus  glanced  at  some  of  the  obliquities  and 
the  general  character  of  the  dominant  system,  it  may  be 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  143 

proper  to  add,  that,  I  do  not  mean  to  censure  anything 
that  contributes  to  the  comfort  and  well-being  of  society. 
Many  things  fashionable  may  be  very  good  and  useful. 
The}'  are  so,  however,  not  because  they  are  fashionable, 
but  in  spite  of  fashion.  The  extremes  of  luxury  and 
extravagance  on  the  one  hand ;  of  meanness  and  avarice 
on  the  other,  are  to  be  equally  avoided.  Amiable  man- 
ners— genuine  politeness — an  easy,  graceful  air  and  car- 
riage— unaffected  refinement  and  delicate  courtesy — are 
very  desirable  and  are  justlv  prized.  Hence  it  is  that 
they  are  more  frequently  counterfeited  than  actually 
possessed.  Good  manners — civilitj' — urbanity — it  has 
been  well  remarked — may  be  regarded  as  the  homage 
which  h^'pocrisy  frequently  pays  to  virtue.  A  man 
may  be,  in  all  his  exterior,  a  perfect  gentleman ;  and 
yet  prove  a  heartless  rake  or  villain  after  all.  Real 
good-will  to  others — kindness  felt  and  cherished — an 
honest,  habitual  desire  and  purpose  to  be  useful — ^must 
lay  the  foundation  for  the  most  solid,  valuable  and 
durable  politeness.  I  would  recommend  the  school  and 
the  writings  of  St.  Paul,  as  infinitely  preferable,  in 
forming  the  gentleman,  Christian  and  scholar,  to  all  the 
Maxims  and  Letters  of  all  the  Rochefoucaulds  and  Ches- 
terfields, dead  or  living,  who  have  ever  written  or  dog- 
matized on  the  subject. 

The  principal  remedy  for  the  worst  evils  which  pre- 
vail amongst  us  is  education.  —  The  proper,  thorough, 
Christian  education  of  all  the  people  from  infancy  to 
manhood.  An  education  which  commences  at  the  ear- 
liest possible  period — which  is  faithful  in  the  discipline 


144  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

and  improvement  of  all  the  faculties,  moral,  physical 
and  intellectual— which  keeps  steadily  in  view  every 
virtue  which  can  adorn  and  elevate  the  character  of 
man — and  which  regards  each  individual,  not  only  as 
a  constituent  part  of  the  great  national  family,  but  as  a 
candidate  for  a  holy  and  a  happy  immortality  in  heaven. 
"  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when 
he  is  old,  he  will  not  depart  from  it."  This  I  believe  as 
fully  as  I  believe  any  other  part  of  divine  revelation. 
God's  blessing  will  crown  with  success  the  honest  efforts 
of  those  who  conscientiously  and  faithfully  obey  his 
commands,  or  employ  the  means  which  himself  has 
ordained.  The  children  of  the  Republic  must  be  rightly 
and  thoroughly  discipUned,  before  we  can  hope  to  see  a 
community  of  temperate,  industrious,  economical,  peace- 
ful, virtuous,  happy  citizens. 

The  genuine  American  System  has  not  yet  been 
practically  developed.  True,  its  spirit  pervades  the 
Declaraticni  of  Independence— i\\d.i  imperishable  docu- 
ment of  human  rights,  to  the  support  of  which  our 
fathers,  in  76,  pledged  their  lives,  their  fortunes  and 
their  sacred  honour.  True,  it  breathes  throughout  the 
Constitutkm,  which  our  venerable  sages,  in  '89,  solemnly 
adopted  as  the  sacred  charter  of  American  liberty. 
But  our  practice  must  yet  be  made  to  accord  with  our 
theory. 

In  this  concern,  as  in  many  others,  we  are  still  sub- 
ject to  the  doganas  and  usages  of  European  masters.  We 
spealc,  indeed,  of  the  majesty  of  the  sovereign  people ; 
but  we  ad  towards  them,  at  least  in  the  matter  of  educa- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  145 

tion,  as  do  English  lords  and  esquires  to  their  vassals 
and  dependants.  English  gentlemen  are  as  proud  of 
their  liberty  as  Americans  can  be ;  but  then  it  is  the 
liberty  of  English  gentlemen,  not  the  liberty  of  the  multi- 
tude, that  they  boast  of  or  care  for.  In  reference  to  the 
education  of  the  labouring  or  operative  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple, the  simple  and  sole  question  usually  is,  what  will 
suffice  them  in  their  character  and  condition  of  labourers 
or  operatives .? — not,  what  will  enable  them  to  rise  above 
their  humble,  degraded  and  servile  condition?  Hence 
it  has  become,  or  rather  continued,  customary  for  even 
sensible  and  well-meaning  men*  among  us,  to  maintain 
the  same  aristocratic  doctrine ;  and  to  tell  the  very  peo- 
ple who  constitute  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  Republic, 
that  they,  the  plain,  honest,  labouring  farmers  and 
mechanics,  have  no  need  of  learning,  beyond  a  mere 
common  education, — which,  according  to  their  interpre- 
tation of  the  phrase,  implies  no  more  than  to  read,  write 
and  keep  accounts.  Now,  is  not  this  virtually  to  doom 
the  great  body  of  the  people  forever  to  an  inferior  condi- 
tion?— To  keep  them  periDctually  disqualified  to  claim 
the  privileges,  to  exercise  the  rights,  to  attain  the  dig- 
nities of  freemen,  equally  with  those  who  are  better 
educated  ?* 


*  The  people  are  moreover  told  that  a  liberal  education  is  not  only 
useless,  or  injurious,  but  very  expensive.  True,  it  does  cost  something. 
The  question  is,  does  it  cost  more  than  it  is  worth  ?  I  answer,  no.  A 
good  education  is  preferable  to  any  fortune  which  any  parent  can  be- 
stow on  his  son  in  lieu  of  it.  And  parents  in  general  can  aiford  to 
educate  their  children  in  the  best  manner — certainly  in  a  much  better 
manner  than  is  now  customary.     I  have  never  known  an  honest,  sober, 

VOL.  I.  10 


146  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

But  it  is  not  merely  to  elevate  one  class  of  men  to  a 
political  equality  with  another,  nor  is  it  mainly  to  qualify 
men  for  public  offices,  still  less  for  professional  eminence, 
that  I  thus  earnestly  and  repeatedly  plead  the  cause  of 
education.  It  is  chiefly  to  make  better  and  happier  and 
more  useful  men,  in  all  the  walks  and  departments,  in 
all  the  pursuits  and  avocations,  public  and  private,  of 
human  society.  Well  informed  men  cannot  be  easily 
imposed  on  by  any  species  of  charlatanry,  fraud,  quack- 
ery, fanaticism,  superstition,  hypocrisy — by  lawyers, 
priests,  physicians  or  demagogues.  As  knowledge  shall 
be  diffused,  professional  services  generally  will  be  less 
needed.  Crimes  will  diminish.  Prisons  and  penitentia- 
ries, jails  and  bridewells, — those  hot  beds  of  depravity 
and  abomination  —  those  seminaries  of  all  manner  of 
iniquity — where  every  wicked  propensity  is  indulged, 
and  every  diabolical  purpose  matured,  and  every  scheme 
of  villany  and  outrage  most  cunningly  devised  and  pre- 
pared for  execution — where  no  culprit  was  ever  yet 
reformed — where  even  the  juvenile  novice  is  soon 
transformed  into  a  hardened,  shameless,  daring,  reckless 
cut-throat — those  lazar-houses  of  sin  and  pestilence  and 

industrious  man  who  could  not  give  his  children  a  good  common  educa- 
tion— provided  good  schools,  or  properly  qualified  teachers  were  esta- 
blished or  could  be  procured  within  a  reasonable  distance.  And 
among  our  respectable  farmers  and  mechanics,  there  are  not  many  who 
could  not  send  their  sons  to  college  if  they  chose.  And  they  would 
do  so,  were  they  taught  to  prize  knowledge  more  highly  than  lands  and 
negroes,  or  thau  the  follies  and  glitter  of  fashion,  or  than  the  gratifica- 
tions of  low  grovelling  dissipation.  And  after  all,  the  complaint  of  the 
expensiveness  of  an  education  comes  with  an  ill  grace  from  those  who 
will  do  nothing  towards  cheapening  it. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  147 

death — at  once  the  curse  and  the  disgrace  of  our  coun- 
try— which  were  established,  and  are  now  supported,  at 
an  expense  a  hundred-fold  greater  than  that  of  all  the 
colleges  and  schools  in  the  nation — will  gradually  be- 
come tenantless. 

Degraded  and  degrading  pauperism  will  vanish — with 
crime — under  the  genial  influence  of  virtue  in  union 
with  science.  Every  man,  however  humble  his  lot,  will 
be  able  to  command  and  to  enjoy  an  intellectual  feast  at 
every  leisure  moment :  and  even  while  busily  employed 
in  his  daily  labours  for  a  subsistence,  the  great  world  of 
mind  and  matter — the  grand  volume  of  nature,  in  all  her 
varied  beauty  and  loveliness,  is  ever  present  to  his  view^ 
and  admiration. 

Let  knowledge  be  as  free  as  the  air  which  we  breathe 
— ^let  it  illumine  the  cottage  as  well  as  the  palace — let  it 
adorn,  elevate  and  dignify  every  human  being — must  be 
the  language  and  the  wish  of  evei*y  enlightened  philan- 
thropist. 

The  American  System  is  now  on  trial  before  the  world. 
It  remains  to  be  seen,  whether  twelve  millions  of  people 
— or  fifty  millions — and  we  shall  soon  be  fifty  millions — 
can  exercise  the  rights  and  powers  of  sovereignty — can 
govern  themselves — live  in  peace  and  safety,  liberty  and 
equality.  And  if  so,  to  solve  the  problem  of  universal 
freedom  and  self-government.  For  the  American  system 
will,  if  successful,  become  the  system  of  the  world.  I 
believe  it  will  succeed.  The  grand  instrument,  under 
God,  of  maintaining  and  carrying  it  to  perfection  is, 
must  ever   be,  education.      The  education  too  of  the 


148  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

very  peoj)le,  who,  at  present,  in  almost  every  part,  of 
the  earth,  are  scarcely  regarded  as  possessing  any  rights, 
or  as  worthy  of  the  slightest  political  consideration,  or  as 
capable  of  any  more  refined  mental  enjoyments  than  the 
savage  or  the  brute.  Labour,  while  you  live,  to  build 
up  this  truly  American  system,  and  thus  to  promote  the 
best  interests  of  all  the  people — and  of  mankind  univer- 
sally. 

And  now,  at  parting,  accept  a  word  of  honest  and 
kindly  counsel. 

"  The  first  and  most  instructive  lesson,  which  man  can 
receive,  (says  one  of  your  college  text  books,)  when  he  is 
capable  of  reflection,  is  to  tMnh  for  himself;  the  second, 
without  Avhich  the  first  would  be  comparatively  of  little 
value,  is  to  reject,  in  himself  that  infallibility,  which  he 
rejects  in  others^ 

Eesolve,  at  your  outset  in  life,  to  be  independent.  To 
think,  examine,  judge  and  decide  for  yourselves,  upon 
all  matters,  practical  and  speculative.  Adopt  none  of 
the  prevailing  maxims  and  principles  of  the  world, 
without  a  thorough  and  candid  scrutiny.  Yield  not 
an  implicit  or  an  indolent  faith  to  any  creed  or  code — 
political,  religious,  philosophical  or  fashionable.  Use  the 
reason  which  God  has  given  you,  in  the  search  of  truth 
and  duty  and  wisdom.  Canvass,  with  candor,  every 
doctrine  which  claims  your  acceptance  or  assent,  of 
whatever  school,  or  by  whatever  authority  it  may  be 
upheld.  Avoid  all  irritating  and  unprofitable  disputes 
and  controversies — especially  concerning  the  tenets  and 
mysteries  of  religion.     But  should  you  engage  in  a  dis- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  149 

cussioii  in  order  to  find  out  truth,  do  not  presume,  as  is 
too  generally  tlie  case,  that  you  are  certainly  possessed 
of  it  beforehand.  "Seest  thou  a  man  wise  in  his  own 
conceit?  there  is  more  hope  of  a  fool  than  of  him." 
Modesty,  patience  and  humility  will  become  you  in 
every  investigation ;  and  at  every  stage  of  your  progress 
through  life.  When,  however,  you  shall  have  ascer- 
tained what  is  true — w^hat  is  right — what  is  suited  to 
your  circumstances — what  will  contribute  to  your  hap- 
piness— dare  to  choose  the  good  and  to  refuse  the  evil. 

Never  submit  to  the  tyranny  of  custom.  Keep  aloof 
from  every  species  of  fashionable  folly,  dissipation, 
amusement,  extravagance  or  pleasure — which,  in  the 
first  place,  you  do  not  or  ought  not  to  approve — or 
which,  in  the  second  place,  you  cannot  afibrd.  Eesist 
all  sohcitations  to  intemperance,  to  gambling,  to  ruinous 
vice  of  every  name  and  description.  "  My  son,  if  sinners 
entice  thee,  consent  thou  not."  "  He  that  walketh  with 
wise  men  shall  be  wise ;  but  a  companion  of  fools  shall 
be  destroyed."  In  all  your  personal  or  other  expendi- 
tures, consult  health  and  comfort — the  extent  of  your 
own  pecuniary  resources  and  the  general  good  of  society. 
Remember  the  adage  of  the  Avise  man,  that,  "the  bor- 
rower is  servant  to  the  lender."  That  frugality,  which 
arises  from  order  and  economy,  is  the  parent  of  liberality 
of  sentiment  and  generosity  of  conduct.  Had  Arnold 
abstained  from  fashionable  vices,  and  been  content  to 
live  within  the  limits  of  his  income,  he  had  not  been 
damned  to  everlasting  fame  as  a  traitor  to  his  country. 

Shun  idleness  as  a  most  insidious  and  dangerous  foe. 


150  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Be  diligent  in  business  and  study.  Search  after  know- 
ledge as  for  hid  treasures.  Labour  patiently  and  perse- 
veringljj  and  relax  not  while  life  endures.  Genius  never 
achieves  miracles — except  by  hard  and  long  continued 
application.  The  talents  of  a  Solomon  would  avail  you 
nothing  without  industry.  Every  truly  great  man, 
whatever  may  have  been  his  early  advantages  of  edu- 
cation, has  been,  and  is,  self-made.  He  may,  indeed, 
build  upon  a  goodly  foundation — and  he  regards  his 
college  discipline  merely  as  a  foundation — but  he  is 
himself  the  builder.  The  superstructure  is  all  his  own : 
and  it  is  the  work  of  years,  perhaps  of  a  long  life.  He 
is  the  maker — the  creator  of  his  own  fortune,  fame  and 
eminence.  And  such  must  you  be,  if  ever  you  rise 
above  the  crowded  ranks  of  humble  mediocrity. 

Cherish  and  maintain  a  sacred,  scrupulous,  inviolable 
and  universal  regard  to  truth  and  integrity,  in  all  your 
intercourse,  conversation  and  dealings  with  your  fellow- 
men. 

Take  not  the  holy  name  of  God  in  vain.  Regard  the 
practice  of  profane  swearing  as  ungentlemanly  and  vul- 
gar, as  it  is  unlawful  and  wicked.  Treat  all  rehgious 
institutions  with  decorous  reverence. 

Be  tolerant,  liberal  and  charitable  in  your  sentiments 
and  conduct.  Never  condemn,  denounce  or  censure  any 
denomination,  class,  sect  or  party  in  the  gross.  You  will 
find  good  men  and  bad,  wise  and  simple,  among  them 
all.  The  spirit  of  bigotry,  intolerance  and  persecution 
is  ever  a  spirit  of  ignorance  or  malignity  or  both.  Abuse 
no  man  for  his  opinions  —  much  less  for  his  religious 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  151 

creed — and  never  ascribe  to  liis  opinions  or  creed  any 
consequences  which  he  himself  dischiiras.  As  a  tree  is 
known  by  its  fruit,  so  a  man  may  be  known  by  his 
actions — and  of  these  we  may,  when  necessary  for  the 
welfare  of  ourselves  or  of  society,  lawfully  judge.  But 
remember,  that  no  heresy,  of  which  you  can  be  guilty, 
is  so  criminal  before  the  majesty  of  high  Heaven,  as  the 
practical  heresy  of  uncharitableness. 

Be  courteous  and  kind  to  all.  Flatter  none.  Deserve 
the  esteem  of  the  virtuous.  Court  not,  by  undue  com- 
pliances, the  favour  of  any.  Humour  not  the  follies  and 
caprices  of  the  high  or  the  low — of  the  many  or  the  few 
— of  the  rich  or  the  poor.  Seek  to  enlighten,  improve 
and  benefit  the  whole,  by  your  example,  your  counsel, 
3'our  influence,  your  learning  and  your  property.  And 
eventually,  the  world  will  make  a  just  estimate  of  your 
talents  and  of  your  merits.  While,  in  the  mean  time, 
you  will  enjoy  more  real  satisfaction  than  any  unde- 
served temporary  popularity  or  applause  could  possibly 
yield. 

Your  connexion.  Young  Gentlemen,  with  this  Univer- 
sity, as  students,  is  this  day  dissolved.  The  affectionate 
attachment  of  dutiful  and  generous  alumni  towards  their 
Alma  Mater,  we  trust,  will  never  be  dissolved,  but  will 
increase  with  the  lapse  of  time,  however  distant  may  be 
your  residence,  or  whatever  may  be  your  future  pursuits. 
But  the  long  looked  for  happy  hour  has,  at  length,  ar- 
rived, which  frees  3'ou  from  college  restraints,  and  which 
sunders  the  ties  of  all  college  relations  and  associations. 
That  you  are  not   insensible  to  the  painful  emotions 


152  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUESES. 

which  a  final  separation  from  intimate  and  beloved  com- 
panions must  awaken  in  every  amiable  bosom,  we  have 
had  abundant  evidence. 

That,  on  other  accounts,  youth  should  be  eager  to 
depart  from  the  scene  of  juvenile  effort,  emulation  and 
discipline  —  however  beneficial  it  may  have  been  to 
them — experience  tells  us  is  natural  and  common. 
That  they  should  contemplate  with  joyous  anticipations, 
the  period,  when  they  may  be  permitted  to  gather  the 
flowers  which  fancy  strews  along  the  path-way  of  future 
Ufe,  and  to  enter  upon  the  proud  theatre  of  manly  enter- 
prize  and  generous  ambition,  is  not  to  be  wondered  at — 
nor  shall  it  receive  from  us  any  cynical  rebuke  or  con- 
demnation. 

But  there  is  an  aspect,  under  which  this  subject  pre- 
sents itself  to  the  eye  and  the  heart  of  those  who  feel 
the  deepest  interest  in  their  welfare,  solemn  and  awful 
and  melancholy  and  distressing  beyond  the  power  of 
language  to  portray.  It  is  the  thought,  that,  in  the 
midst  of  all  this  buoyancy  of  spirit  and  of  hope — of  all 
this  earthly  attractiveness  and  fascination — of  all  these 
bright  and  cheering  prospects — of  all  these  dreams  of 
virtuous  exertion  and  honourable  distinctions — of  all 
those  xDleasures,  joys  and  rewards  which  seem  to  stretch 
along  to  the  remotest  verge  of  itie  horizon  of  youthful 
imagination — and  w^hich  cluster  around  his  every  view 
in  the  richest  groups  and  most  varied  profusion,  as  if  to 
chide  his  delay  and  backwardness  to  improve  the  pass- 
ing moment,  and  to  seize  the  proffered  bounty  of  nature, 
thus  pressed  upon  his  acceptance — oh,  it  is  the  thought. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  153 

that,  at  this  very  moment  of  purest  sunshine,  when  all 
creation  seems  to  smile,  and  to  hail  with  ecstasy  the 
commencement  of  that  youthful  career  which  promises 
so  much  glory  and  happiness — it  is  the  dreadful  thought, 
that,  Death  may  be  secretly  lurking  in  the  midst  of  the 
happy  company,  and  insidiously  making  his  approach  to 
the  vitals  of  some  unsuspecting  youth,  on  whose  counte- 
nance plays  the  almost  heavenly  smile  of  assured  confi- 
dence and  unmingled  delight  in  the  fair  scenes  which  a 
long  life  is  yet  to  realize !  Ah,  my  friends,  would  to 
God,  there  existed  no  reason  for  this  heart-rending — 
and,  to  all  human  nature's  proudest,  noblest  schemes — 
most  revolting,  tantalizing,  overwhelming  thought ! 

But  when  did  a  class  of  youth  bid  farewell  to  any  seat 
of  science,  to  whom  the  thought  would  have  been  unsea- 
sonable ?  or  from  whose  number,  one  and  another  have 
not  been  summoned  to  judgment,  within  a  few  short 
years  or  months  after  their  departure  ? 

Rejoice,  therefore,  with  trembling,  in  the  yiew  of  that 
resplendent,  but  most  deceiving  world  into  which  you 
are  about  to  enter.  Remember  that  you,  Hke  the  gifted 
alumni  of  other  institutions,  may  be  cut  down  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  brilliant  and  successful  career — or  in 
the  first  stages  of  pious  and  benevolent  efibrt — or  before 
you  can  even  begin  the  work  on  which  your  hearts  are 
all  intent.  In  their  destiny,  read  what  may  be  yours. 
Let  the  dead  speak  and  warn  you  to  be  wise.  Let  death 
be  provided  for  first,  and  above  all  things,  then  peace 
and  joy  shall  crown  your  earthly  lot,  be  its  complexion 
what  it  may.     Then  the  world  shall  appear  in  its  true 


154  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

colours :  and  tliougii  it  may  doom  you  to  many  trials, 
labours  and  disappointments,  yet  you  can  ever  look, 
with  a  holy  calmness  and  delight,  beyond  this  tempestu- 
ous ocean,  to  that  tranquil  haven — to  that  blessed  coun- 
try— where  the  wicked  cease  from  troublmg,  and  where 
the  weary  be  at  rest. 

Let  the  Bible  be  the  companion  of  3'our  future  lives 
and  studies.  Read  it  daily,  and  with  humble  prayer  for 
the  illuminating  influences  of  that  blessed  Spirit  who 
first  inspired  and  revealed  it.  It  will  be  a  lamp  to  your 
feet,  and  a  light  to  your  path,  and  a  joy  to  your  hearts, 
in  all  your  wanderings  through  life's  checkered  scenery, 
and  through  death's  dark  valley.  It  will  teach  you  how 
to  value,  and  how  to  improve  time,  talent,  learning  and 
wealth — how  to  be  honest — how  to  be  religious — how  to 
be  useful — how  to  be  happy — how  to  live — and  how  to 
die. 

May  the  Almighty  bless  you  with  long  life,  health, 
peace  and  prosperity — grant  you  the  renewing,  sanctify- 
ing and  saving  influences  of  his  Holy  Spirit — make  you 
eminently  useful  in  your  day  and  generation.  And 
whether  we  ever  meet  again  on  earth  or  not,  may  we 
all  meet  in  heaven  at  last,  and  rejoice  together  in 
heaven  while  eternity  endures ;  through  infinite  riches 
of  free  grace  in  Christ  Jesus  the  righteous,  who  is  over 
all,  God  blessed  forever !     Amen. 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS. 


[CUMBERLAND  COLLEGE,  OCTOBER  7,  1829.] 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS, 

AT   CUMBERLAND   COLLEGE,  1829 


The  people  oppose,  for  a  season,  plans  and  institutions 
designed  to  promote  their  own  welfare,  through  sheer 
ignorance.  When  disabused  of  prejudice,  and  fully  in- 
structed in  regard  to  their  genuine  character  and  ten- 
dency, they  usually  become  their  warm  and  devoted 
friends.  This  is  a  solid  ground  of  encouragement  to 
persevere  in  any  useful  enterprise,  until  the  people  be 
fully  informed  respecting  it,  for  then  their  support  may 
be  confidently  relied  on.  The  ever-memorable  epoch  of 
our  own  glorious  revolution  may  aptly  illustrate  this 
position,  and  the  general  intelligence  of  our  countrymen. 
No  country  could  ever  boast  of  a  larger  number  of  en- 
lightened, gifted,  noble,  high-minded  patriots  than  were, 
at  that  alarming  crisis,  found  ready  to  hazard  all  things 
in  defence  of  their  constitutional  and  inherited  rights  as 
free-born  Englishmen.  But  they  would  have  struggled 
in  vain,  had  not  the  entire  mass  of  the  people  been 

;N'ote. — The  reader  is  requested  to  keep  in  mind  that  the  following 
"Plea  for  the  University  of  Nashville"  was  delivered  in  1829.  No 
alteration,  in  facts  or  dates,  has  been  made  to  suit  the  changes  which 
have  since  occurred. 

15t 


158  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

easily  taught  to  comprelienci  tliem  also,  and  to  enlist 
with  determined  ardour  in  the  common  cause.  Three 
millions  of  people  were  never  before  in  a  condition  to 
act  so  honourably  and  promptly  in  a  good  cause,  The 
master  spirits  in  that  grand  drama  had  but  to  sound  the 
alarm,  and  give  the  impulse ;  and  every  man  was  at  his 
post,  and  ready  to  conquer  or  to  die.  I  doubt  whether, 
at  this  moment,  our  country  possesses  half  the  number 
of  truly  great  men,  in  proportion  to  her  population, 
which  adorned  and  directed  her  counsels  in  the  cabinet 
and  in  the  field,  from  '70  to  '89 ; — or  a  people  half  as 
enlightened,  taking  the  whole  mass  into  view,  as  they 
were  at  the  period  referred  to.  Intellectual  and  moral 
improvement  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  increase  of  our 
numbers  and  resources.  This  is  the  decided  opinion  of 
the  most  competent  judges,  and  our  history  amply  con- 
firms it. 

These  general  remarks  apply  to  our  literary  institu- 
tions—  to  our  colleges  and  universities  —  with  even 
greater  force  and  pertinence  than  to  most  other  ob- 
jects and  enterprises  which  are  often  doomed  to  a 
temporary  unpopularity.  Look  at  the  rise  and  early 
history  of  our  most  ancient  seats  of  science — at  Harvard, 
William  and  Mary,  Yale,  and  Nassau-Hall,  for  instance. 
In  their  infancy,  and  for  many  years  subsequently,  they 
had  to  maintain  a  constant  struggle  for  existence.  The 
body  of  the  people  regarded  them,  for  a  long  time,  with 
suspicion,  envy,  jealousy  and  apprehension — as  destined 
for  the  rich  and  honourable — as  likely  to  raise  up  and 
to  perpetuate   a  learned   and  powerful   aristocracy — as 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  109 

aii}tliiiig,  in  short,  rather  than  what  they  professed  and 
cLaimed  to  be.  But  their  friends  persevered — "Onward" 
was  their  motto — in  spite  of  popuLar  clamour  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  cold  indifference  and  sometimes  direct 
opposition  of  the  royal  government  on  the  other.  They 
conquered — succeeded — and  triumphed  gloriously.  And 
these  very  institutions  became  the  principal  nurseries  of 
our  revolutionary  heroes  and  statesmen.  By  furnishing 
well  qualified  instructors  for  common  schools,  they  dif- 
fused the  light  of  science  and  truth  over  the  continent, 
and  enabled  the  people  to  discern  and  to  appreciate  their 
own  perilous  condition  and  jeoparded  franchises. 

The  history  of  those  colonial  pioneers  in  the  cause  of 
learning,  virtue  and  liberty,  is  pregnant  with  instruction 
to  all  men  who  entertain  doubts  or  fears  or  prejudices  in 
regard  to  the  character,  influence  and  bearing  of  similar 
establishments.  Within  sight  of  the  oldest,  and  still 
most  celebrated  university  of  our  countrj-,  commenced 
the  mighty  contest  which  created  a  nation  of  freemen. 
And  her  gallant  sons  poured  out  their  blood  like  water 
upon  the  battle  field.  They  roused  by  their  eloquence 
every  patriotic  energy  of  their  countrymen,  and  were 
ever  foremost  to  hazard  and  to  sacrifice  fortune  and  life 
for  the  general  weal.  Then  was  the  golden  opportunity 
for  college-bred  gentlemen  to  have  secured  for  them- 
selves stars  and  garters  and  mitres  and  estates,  by  rally- 
ing round  the  royal  standard,  in  support  of  legitimacy 
and  aristocrac}^,  of  the  priest  and  king;  and  to  have 
placed  their  feet  proudly  upon  the  necks  of  the  vulgar 
and  illiterate.    So  base  a  sycophant,  so  traitorous  a  tory, 


160  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

SO  aspiring  a  tcould  he  lord,  never  disgraced  a  college 
catalogue.  Not  one  proved  recreant  to  the  caijse  of 
popular  rights  and  liberty.  Whatever  their  calling  or 
profession — lawyers,  physicians,  clergymen,  merchants, 
fanners  —  all  the  sons  of  Alma  Mater — were  found  in 
the  ranks  of  hostility  to  Britain's  claims  and  to  Britain's 
legions. 

Nor  ought  it  ever  to  be  forgotten  that,  throughout  the 
original  thirteen  confederated  colonies,  afterwards  States, 
the  best  educated  and  most  enlightened  individuals  were 
decided  Whigs ; — and  in  their  wisdom,  intelligence,  par 
triotism  and  integrity,  the  people  reposed  unlimited  con- 
fidence. And  they  were  not  deceived.  These  were  the 
men  who  directed  the  revolutionary  conflict :  and  these 
too  were  the  men  who  formed  the  Constitution,  under 
which  we  now  live  in  peace,  prosperity  and  happiness, 
unparalleled  in  the  history  of  our  world. 

In  this  new  world,  west  of  the  mountains,  various 
attempts  have  been  made,  and  are  making,  to  establish 
the  higher  seminaries  of  learning  for  the  benefit  of  the 
rising  and  of  future  generations.  These  attempts  have 
hitherto  proved  abortive,  or  are  yet  in  a  state  of  inci- 
pient and  doubtful  progress.  I  hazard  nothing  in  assert- 
ing that  no  such  institution  in  the  Western  States  has 
as  yet  been  placed  on  a  foundation  at  all  likely  to 
ensure  its  permanent  existence  and  prosperity.*  Colleges 
and  universities,  in  numbers  sufficiently  imposing,  have 
been  gratuitously  chartered  by  the  Legislatures  of  diflfer- 
ent  States : — as  if  a  mere  nominal  charter  were  all  that 
was  necessary  to  constitute  a  college !     Many,  no  doubt, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  IGl 

have  been  deceived,  and  continue  to  be  deceived,  hy  the 
name;  while,  of  the  substance,  they  remain  as  destitute 
as  before.  Scarcely  any  portion  of  the  civilized  Chris- 
tian world  is  so  poorly  provided  with  the  means  of  a 
liberal  education  as  are  the  five  millions  of  Americans 
within  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 

A  dozen  or  more  colleges  and  universities'''  have  been 
chartered  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  and  w^e  have  five  in 
Tennessee.  Not  more  than  three  or  four  of  the  whole 
number  can,  in  reason,  be  pronounced  equal  to  good 
second-rate  grammar  schools.  A  few  enlightened  in- 
dividuals have  constantly  aimed  at  higher  and  nobler 
results ;  but  generally  they  have  failed  in  their  anticipa- 
tions, and  been  thwarted  in  their  purposes.  Colleges 
rise  up  like  mushrooms  in  our  luxuriant  soil.  They  are 
duly  lauded  and  puffed  for  a  day ;  and  then  they  sink 
to  be  heard  of  no  more.  Do  our  wise  men  fancy,  that, 
by  the  magic  of  a  technical  parchment,  they  can  in- 
stantly convert  a  school  or  academy,  with  its  master 
and  usher,  into  a  college  —  w^here  the  liberal  arts  and 
sciences  shall  be  adequately  and  thoroughly  taught? 
If  so,  why  not  transform  at  once  every  grammar  school 
in  the  State  into  a  college ;  and  thus  bring  the  means 
of  a  liberal  education  to  the  door  of  every  poor  man's 
cottage?  Already,  Western  colleges,  thus  established, 
have  become  the  objects  of  ridicule  and  contempt  in 
every  enlightened  corner  of  the  land. 

The  levelling  system,  w^hich  is  so  popular  and  capti- 

*  Fourteen,  precisely,  have  been  chartered  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky — 
and  all,  except  two,  are  in  a  sort  of  operation. 
VOL.  I.  11 


162  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

vating  with  the  multitude,  may  be  made  to  operate  in 
two  ways,  with  equal  success — either  by  nullifying,  alto- 
gether every  institution  which  implies  or  claims  more 
than  ordinary  privileges  and  distinction ;  or  by  exalting 
to  equal  rank  everything  of  a  similar  generic  character. 
Thus,  colleges  and  universities,  as  implying  odious  pre- 
eminence, may  be  prevented  from  growing  up  among  us : 
or  every  petty  village  school  may  be  dignified  with  the 
name  and  legal  attributes  of  a  college — be  em230wered 
to  confer  academical  degrees — and  to  doctorate  every 
stripling  sciolist  in  the  commonwealth.  Pretty  much 
the  same  result  would  ensue  from  either  of  these  sapient 
schemes;  and  the  latter  seems  to  have  found  most  fa- 
vour in  the  Western  country.  Democratic  and  repub- 
lican as  we  are,  our  citizens  are  strangely  partial  to 
great  names.  Esquire,  Honourable,  Excellency,  Major, 
Colonel,  General,  Doctor,  are  as  much  coveted  and  as 
eagerly  sought  after  in  this  country,  as  are  titles  of 
nobility  in  Europe.  And  foreign  titled  gentry,  when 
they  condescend  to  visit  us,  are  regarded  and  treated  as 
a  superior  race.  The  wealthiest  and  proudest  man  in 
the  United  States  would  feel  himself  and  family  won- 
drously  honoured  and  renowned,  could  he  be  so  fortu- 
nate as  to  marry  his  daughter  to  an  English  earl  or 
even  baronet !  This  spirit,  so  utterly  at  variance  with 
our  Constitution  and  avowed  political  doctrines,  is  suffi- 
ciently contemptible  to  be  left,  without  serious  comment, 
to  the  ridicule  which  it  merits,  were  it  not  for  some  of 
its  deleterious  practical  effects  on  society.  And  among 
these  is  the  evil  in  question.     Our  people,  at  first,  oppose 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  163 

all  distinctions  Avlmtever  as  odious  and  aristocratical ; 
and  then,  presently,  seek  with  avidity  such  as  remain 
accessible.  At  first,  they  denounce  colleges ;  and  then 
choose  to  have  a  college  in  every  district  or  county,  or 
for  every  sect  and  party — and  to  boast  of  a  college  edu- 
cation, and  to  sport  with  high  sounding  literary  titles ; 
as  if  these  imparted  sense  or  wisdom  or  knowledge. 
How  long  this  puerile  vanity  will  continue  in  vogue,  it 
is  not  easy  to  foresee. 

At  least,  two  small  items  may  always  be  regarded  as 
indispensable  to  the  prosperity  of  any  American  college 
or  university.  Namel}':  1st.  An  intelligent,  upright, 
liberal,  devoted,  efficient,  harmonious  and  enterprising 
Board  of  Trustees, — who  understand  its  interests,  and 
are  ever  ready  to  discharge  their  sacred  and  responsible 
duties,  w^ith  untiring  zeal,  fidelity  and  perseverance.  In 
this  one  grand  essential,  our  University,  happily,  has  no- 
thing to  desiderate. 

2d.  Adequate  pecuniar}^  funds.  A  university  is  neces- 
sarily an  expensive  concern.  Genius,  learning,  wisdom, 
industry,  and  the  most  disinterested  ardour  in  the  cause, 
can  achieve  nothing  without  the  golden  lever.  Money 
alone  can  erect  the  buildings,  procure  the  library,  appa- 
ratus, cabinets  of  Natural  Histor},  and  all  the  other 
requisite  fixtures.  And  when  all  these  are  dulj-  pro- 
vided, money  is  still  necessary  to  command  the  services 
of  talented  instructors.  A  regular  and  certain  revenue, 
independent  of  the  precarious  and  ever-varying  income 
from  tuition  fees,  is  essential  to  its  successful  operation. 
No  respectable  college  in  the  United  States  depends,  at 


164  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

this  moment,  exclusively  on  the  tuition  fees  derived 
from  students,  for  the  means  of  paying  its  professors. 
Every  such  institution  has  an  independent  income  from 
other  sources — from  the  State  Treasur}- — or  from  pro- 
ductive funds,  furnished  originally  by  individual  munifi- 
cence or  by  the  government. 

Harvard  University  has  an  annual  revenue  of  about 
thirty  thousand  dollars,  exclusive  of  tuition  charges. 
And  all  the  other  New  England  colleges  have  similar 
endowments,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent. 

The  State  of  New  York  has,  within  a  few  years  past, 
appropriated  in  cash  for  the  benefit  of  Columbia  Col- 
lege in  her  Metropolis,  $86,225.— Of  Union  College, 
$389,250.— Of  Hamilton  College,  $106,800.— "Besides 
lands,  value  unknown."  And  these  large  sums,  amount- 
ing to  $582,275,  were  granted,  not  to  give  incipient  ex- 
istence to,  but  to  enlarge  and  to  help  forward  those 
institutions  —  the  pride  and  the  glory  of  that  truly 
munificent  and  enlightened  commonwealth — which  has 
also  expended  millions  on  common  schools,  academies, 
medical  colleges,  penitentiaries,  and  internal  improve- 
ments. 

WiUiam  and  Mary  College  in  Virginia,  has  productive 
funds  to  the  amount  of  $120,000.  Washington  College, 
at  Lexington,  in  the  same  State,  has  a  perpetual  income 
of  $3000  from  the  liberality  of  its  illustrious  founder, 
whose  name  it  bears;  besides  a  recent  legacy  of  an 
estate  valued  at  $100,000.  While  the  Universihj  of 
Virginia,  the  last,  and  not  the  least  of  the  patriotic 
achievements   of  the   people's   greatest   favourite — the 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOUKSES.  165 

gifted,  philosophic  and  rcpubhcan  Jefferson  —  is  entitled 
to  a  perpetual  annuity  from  the  Virginia  Literary  Fund 
of  $15,000 — in  addition  to  the  half  million  expended  on 
its  beautiful  edifices  and  various  furniture. 

The  University  of  North  Carolina  is  known  to  be  one 
of  the  richest  in  America.  South  Carolina  College  re- 
ceives an  annual  grant  from  the  legislature  of  twelve  or 
fifteen  thousand  dollars.  Its  buildings,  library,  appa- 
ratus, &c.  were  all  furnished  by  the  State,  and  are  of  the 
first  order. 

The  University  of  Georgia  has  been  equally  favoured. 
In  1821,  a  bill  passed  the  Assembly  of  Georgia,  appro- 
priating $25,000  for  the  erection  of  a  new  college  edifice, 
and  a  permanent  annual  endowment  of  $8000,  for  the 
support  of  the  institution.  And  the  University  of  Ala- 
bama is  about  to  go  into  operation  with  a  productive 
fund  of  at  least  half  a  million  of  dollars. 

In  this  brief  notice,  I  have  not  attempted  details.  I 
have  had  in  view  chiefly  the  permanent  means  of  sup- 
port, possessed  by  some  of  our  principal  seminaries.  As 
to  the  entire  amount  expended  on  any  one  of  our  older 
colleges,  from  its  rise  to  the  present  time,  it  would  be 
difficult,  perhaps  impossible,  to  form  an  estimate.  But 
concerning  its  present  actual  revenue  there  can  be  no 
mistake.  And  this  was  the  single  fact  which  I  wished 
prominently  to  exhibit,  in  order  to  demonstrate  the  fal- 
lacy of  the  prevalent  notion — that  a  college  needs  only 
to  be  started — to  be  set  agoing,  Avith  a  few  rude  mate- 
rials, and  two  or  three  teachers — and  that  then  it  must 
needs  sustain  itself.      I  repeat,  no  such  instance  of  good 


166  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

fortune  exists  in  all  our  country.  Nor  will  such  a  result 
ever  be  dreamed  of  by  any  person  acquainted  with  the 
history  and  statistics  of  colleges. 

In  enterprising  the  establishment  of  a  University  at 
Nashville,  the  honest  purpose  was  fondly  cherished  from 
the  beginning,  to  render  it  m  fact  all  that  the  name  im- 
ports. Its  friends  desired  to  lay  its  foundations  deep 
and  broad.  They  felt  that  they  were  going  to  build  for 
posterity  as  well  as  for  the  living.  That  kind  of  ephe- 
meral popularity,  which  is  so  cheaply  purchased,  and 
which  is  never  w^ortli  the  cheapest  purchase,  they 
neither  sought  nor  coveted.  They  did  not  expect  to 
see  the  gilded  domes  and  lofty  turrets  of  their  Univer- 
sity suddenly  rising  in  splendour,  and  dazzling  the  eye 
of  every  beholder.  They  knew  that  they  could,  at  best, 
achieve  little  more  than  the  commencement  of  a  work, 
which  must  be  fostered  and  enlarged  and  matured  in  the 
progress,  perhaps,  of  ages  to  come.  They  did,  indeed, 
confidently  expect  to  accomplish  more  than  they  have 
done ;  because  they  believed  that  they  had  at  command 
vastly  larger  pecuniary  resources  than  they  have  been 
permitted  to  realize.  How  or  wherefore  they  have  been 
deprived  of  these  necessary  means,  it  is  not  for  me,  on 
this  occasion,  to  account.  Or  what  may  be  the  conse- 
quence of  this  failure  and  disappointment,  it  is  not  for 
me  to  predict. 

I  did  once  flatter  myself  that  the  people  of  Tennessee 
would  rally  round  this  infant  seat  of  science,  and  take  a 
just  pride  in  its  grow^th  and  prosperity.  I  did  suppose 
that  they  would  cherish  an  institution  of  their  own — 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  1G7 

established  in  their  own  flourishing  Metropolis — in  the 
midst  of  their  own  territory,  and  of  their  own  peculiar 
manners,  customs,  climate,  habits,  and  all  those  other 
nameless  indescribable  somethings  which  constitute 
]io^iie — rather  than  continue  to  be  tributary  to  distant 
or  foreign  countries  for  the  education  of  their  sons,  at 
an  enormous  expense,  and  at  other  hazards  infinitely 
more  momentous  than  any  pecuniary  sacrifice.  I  did 
suppose  that  the  good  sense  of  the  community  would 
soon  perceive  that  a  University  cannot  be  in  every  town 
— that  it  must  have  some  one  permanent  location — and 
that,  when  once  fixed  and  in  operation,  all  petty  local 
jealousies  and  rivalries  would  die  away. — And  that  the 
University  of  Nashville  w^ould  command  the  favour  and 
patronage  of  the  public,  because  it  w^ould  be  their  own, 
and  not  a  foreign  University. 

In  casting  my  eye  over  the  Map  of  Tennessee,  it 
struck  me  from  the  first  that  this  was  precisely  the 
place  destined  by  Providence  for  a  great  University,  if 
ever  such  an  institution  were  to  exist  in  the  State,  And 
in  this  opinion  I  am  fully  confirmed  by  several  years' 
observation  and  experience.  I  am  entirely  satisfied  that 
it  is  physically  impossible  to  maintain  a  University  (I  am 
not  now  speaking  of  an  ordinary  college)  in  any  other 
town  in  the  State.  And  for  this  single  good  reason, 
were  there  no  other :  namely — A  Medical  School,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  an  essential  and  as  the  most  import- 
ant department  of  a  real  university,  can  never  be  sus- 
tained except  in  a  large  town  or  city — and  the  larger 
the  better.     Nashville  is  the  only  place  where  a  Medical 


168  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

School  would  even  be  thought  of:  and  physicians  know 
full  well  that  such  is  the  fact.  K  Tennessee  then, is  to 
have  such  a  school,  it  must  be  established  in  Nashville. 

How  long  will  Tennessee  continue  to  send  her  youth 
to  Philadelphia,  or  Cincinnati,  or  Lexington,  to  learn 
the  healing  art?  Or  how  long  will  she  tolerate  that 
murderous  quackery  which  her  untaught  striplings  are 
continually  obtruding  upon  an  ignorant  and  easily  de- 
ceived people  ?  Is  it  intended  that  none  but  rich  men's 
sons,  who  can  afford  to  spend  years  at  our  Eastern  cities, 
shall  aspire  to  this  profession  ?  Or  will  she  permit  the 
poor  and  friendless  to  form  themselves  for  this  responsi- 
ble service,  as  best  the}'  can  :  and  to  blunder  along  into 
successful  and  lucrative  practice,  by  experimenting  upon 
the  livmg  subject  instead  of  the  dead,  until  they  acquire 
that  knowledge  and  skill,  which  ought  to  have  been 
learned  at  school  before  they  ventured  to  prescribe  or  to 
operate  at  all?  In  this  profession,  more  than  in  any 
other,  it  behooves  the  legal  authorities  of  the  land  to 
interpose ;  and  to  provide  for  the  due  qualifications  and 
fidelity  of  its  members.  —  Because  the  people  cannot 
judge  for  themselves.  When  the  aid  of  a  Physician  or 
Surgeon  is  needed  in  any  critical  emergency — the  Doctor 
is  sent  for,  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  implicitly  confided 
in  :  and  if  the  patient  be  killed,  or  maimed,  or  disabled 
for  life — who  is  responsible  for  the  injury  inflicted?  How 
many  are  thus  killed  every  year  in  our  country  and  in 
this  State  by  such  empiricks,  can  never  be  known.  I 
take  it  for  granted,  however,  that  every  half-educated 
young  physician,  who  succeeds  at  last  in  getting  a  re- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  169 

jputaUe  share  of  practice,  must  have  rid  the  world,  rather 
prematurely,  of  some  dozen  or  twenty  individuals  at  the 
least,  in  order  to  qualify  himself  for  his  profession. 

In  most  countries  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  espe- 
cially in  France  and  Germany,  candidates  for  the  medi- 
cal profession  are  required  by  law  to  study  at  least  four 
years,  winter  and  summer,  at  some  regular  well  endowed 
Medical  College  or  University.  And  each  pupil  is  obliged 
to  dissect  from  four  to  twelve  subjects,  provided  by  go- 
vernment for  the  purpose,  and  then  to  sustain  a  most 
rigid  public  examination,  before  a  diploma,  or  a  license 
to  commence  practice  even  in  the  most  obscure  country 
village,  can  be  obtained.  "  In  Italy,  a  study  of  six  years 
is  necessary  to  obtain  a  degree  for  higher  surgery : — The 
practice  of  dissection,  and  the  performance  of  the  prin- 
cipal operations  on  the  dead  body,  are  indispensable; 
and  an  abundant  supply  of  subjects  is  aiforded  the  stu- 
dent in  the  prosecution  of  his  pursuits." 

In  our  country,  the  utmost  that  is  expected  in  order 
to  procure  an  M.  D.  is  attendance  for  two  sessions,  of 
three  or  four  months  each,  upon  a  course  of  lectures  at 
a  Medical  School,  and  a  short  apprenticeship  with  some 
practising  physician.  And  even  this  brief  attendance 
at  the  lecture  room  is  frequently  dispensed  A\dth :  and 
scores  of  young  men  are  licensed  to  practise  medicine  in 
half  the  time  that  would  be  indispensable  to  learn  any 
mechanical  trade  whatever.  It  is  easier,  at  this  moment, 
in  Tennessee,  for  a  young  man  to  be  qualified  according 
to  law,  to  practise  medicine,  or  any  other  learned  pro- 
fession, than  to  be  duly  qualified  to  shoe  a  horse  or  to 


170  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

build  a  dray.  How  long — I  repeat  the  demand — are  our 
people  to  be  thus  cheated,  trifled  with,  and  oppressed? 
Tyranny,  the  most  cruel  and  arbitrary,  may  be  exercised 
just  as  easily  by  a  republican  legislature,  or  by  an  in- 
flituated  populace,  as  by  an  hereditary  despot.  And 
when  inflicted,  it  matters  little  to  the  unfortunate  suf- 
ferer, by  what  name,  or  under  Avhat  form. 

Whether  a  University  is  of  any  use  in  training  law- 
yers, I  shall  not  inquire.  In  point  of  numbers,  we  shall 
always  have  a  reasonable  supply,  learned  or  unlearned, 
honest  or  dishonest — ^because  the  nature  of  our  political 
fabric,  of  our  civil  jurisprudence,  and  of  all  our  legal 
usages  demands  them ;  and  because  all  our  important 
civil  offices,  from  the  Presidential  Chair  downwards,  are 
filled  by  them.  They  will  abound  and  flourish  just  in 
proportion  to  the  general  ignorance  and  degradation  of 
the  mass  of  the  people.  If  this  be  an  evil,  the  only 
check  upon  it,  and  the  only  remedy  for  it,  will  be  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge  among  the  people.  Enlighten 
and  elevate  the  people,  and  they  will  have  less  occasion 
and  less  disposition  to  resort  to  the  glorious  uncertainty 
of  the  law.  There  are  probably  six  hundred  lawyers, 
of  one  sort  or  another  in  Tennes>«!ee,  who  receive  some 
six  hundred  thousand  dollars,  more  or  less,  of  the  peo- 
ple's money  annually,  to  aid  in  procuring  them  legal 
justice — which  is  often  no  justice  at  all,  and  which 
always  costs  more  than  it  is  worth.  If  to  this  be  added 
the  wdiole  array  of  judges,  justices,  courts,  sheriffs,  con- 
stables, prisons,  &c.  our  system  of  law  and  equity  will 
be  found  sufficiently  onerous  —  and  infinitely  more  ex- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  171 

pensive  and  vexatious  than  the  summary  process  of  the 
Turkish  Cadi,  and  not  half  as  certain  or  equitable  at  the 
last. 

I  cherish  no  unkindly  sentiments  towards  lawyers. 
So  long  as  the  Gothic-Saxo-Norman-English  system  of 
common,  statute  and  bench-made  law,  which  has  been 
represented  as  an  interminable,  overgrowing,  incompre- 
hensible, labyrinthian  mystery  of  torture  and  extortion 
— which  Burke  deliberately  denounced,  which  Brougham 
is  diligently  labouring  to  reform,  and  which  Bentham  in- 
trepidly threatens  to  annihilate  : — or,  (to  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  Blackstone  and  others,)  so  long  as  this  intricate 
and  beautiful  science,  the  very  perfection  of  written  rea- 
son, to  the  lucid  development  of  which  the  most  inde- 
fatigable and  distinguished  sages  have  nobly  consecrated 
their  talents  and  their  lives — so  long  as  this  much 
lauded  and  much  vituperated  system,  whether  it  be  law, 
science,  mystery,  or  all  combined,  to  which  every  known 
epithet  of  praise  and  censure  has  been  and  continues  to 
be  applied,  and  of  which  it  is  impossible  for  the  un- 
initiated, like  myself,  to  form  any  conception,  except 
from  its  practical  effects  —  so  long  as  such  a  system, 
whatever  may  be  its  qualities  or  tendencies,  shall  find 
favour  in  our  land,  lawyers  will  be  the  oracles  of  truth, 
wisdom  and  justice  to  the  people.  Lawyers  too,  there 
must  be,  under  any  form  of  government  or  system  of 
jurisprudence.  And  a  truly  accomplished,  hberal,  up- 
right, high-minded  lawyer  will  ever  prove  a  most 
valuable  blessing  and  the  brightest  ornament  to  any 
community.     Of  many  such  eminently  gifted  and  illus- 


172  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

trious  jurists  and  advocates,  our  country  may  proudly 
boast.  It  is  for  the  people  to  decide,  whether  they  .will 
consent  to  be  the  passive  slaves  and  dupes  of  mere  petti- 
fogging smatterers,  by  becoming  themselves  sufficiently 
intelligent  to  detect  and  to  discountenance  every  species 
of  knavish  quackery. 

As  to  divines,  whether  they  ought  to  be  learned  or 
not,  is  a  question  which  otherS  may  decide  according  to 
their  own  fancy.  If  people  choose  to  have  hispired  men 
for  their  spiritual  guides,  the  less  of  human  science  with 
which  they  may  chance  to  be  encumbered,  the  better — 
at  least,  the  more  apparent  and  striking  will  be  the  evi- 
dences of  their  inspiration.  Fools  will  always  be  im- 
posed on  by  the  cunning  under  some  pretext  or  other. 
And  all  well  informed  men  know  what  priestcraft 
achieved  in  the  dark  ages,  when  not  one  in  a  thou- 
sand of  the  laity  could  read,  and  when  the  Bible  was 
restricted  to  the  cloister,  w^here  it  often  remained  a 
sealed  book  even  to  the  privileged  inmates  and  to  its 
authorized  interpreters. 

I  leave  out  of  the  case  then,  at  present,  both  lawyers 
and  clergymen — merely  hinting  mine  own  opinion  by 
the  way,  that  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  would  be 
the  worse  for  a  thorough  scientific  education,  whether 
acquired  at  a  university  or  elsewhere. 

But  our  farmers  ought,  beyond  all  question,  to  be 
liberally  educated ;  that  is,  they  ought  to  have  the  best 
education  that  is  attainable.  I  do  not  say  that  everi/ 
farmer  ought  to  go  to  college,  or  to  become  a  proficient 
in  Greek  and  Latin.      I  speak  of  them  as  a  class :  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  173 

by  a  liberal  education,  I  mean  such  a  course  of  intel- 
lectual discipline  as  will  fit  them  to  sustain  the  rank 
which  they  ought  to  hold  in  this  Republic.  They  are  by 
right  the  sovereigns  of  the  land,  because  they  constitute 
an  overwhelming  majority.  Why  do  they  not  then,  in 
fact,  rule  the  land  ?  Because,  and  only  because,  they 
are  too  ignorant.  And  thus  they  sink  into  comparative 
insignificance :  and  suffer  themselves  to  be  used  as  the 
mere  instruments  of  creating  their  own  masters,  who 
care  as  little  for  their  real  welfare  as  if  they  were  born 
to  be  beasts  of  burden.  Were  it  possible,  I  would  visit 
every  farmer  in  Tennessee,  who  is  not  already  awake, 
and  endeavour  to  arouse  him  from  his  fatal  lethargy,  by 
every  consideration  which  can  render  hfe  and  liberty 
desirable ;  and  urge  him  to  reclaim  his  abandoned  rights 
and  his  lost  dignity,  by  giving  to  his  sons  that  measure 
of  instruction  which  will  qualify  them  to  assert  and  to 
maintain  their  just  superiority  in  the  councils  of  the 
State  and  of  the  Nation,  like  men  proudlj^  conscious  of 
their  intellectual  as  well  as  physical  power. 

The  same  general  remarks  apply  to  mechanics  and  to 
all  the  labouring  classes,  in  proportion  to  their  numbers. 
An  education,  even  of  the  highest  order,  may  be  as 
valuable  to  them  as  to  others.  Li  our  free  country,  a* 
farmer  or  mechanic,  with  equal  talents  and  intelligence, 
would  be  more  likely  to  become  a  popular  favourite, 
than  either  a  lawyer  or  the  well-bred  heir  of  an  opulent 
patrician  family.  Suppose  a  farmer  could  speak  as  well, 
write  as  well,  appear  as  well  versed  in  history,  geogra- 
phy, statistics,  jurisprudence,  politics,  and  other  matters 


174  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

of  general  and  local  interest,  as  the  lawyer — would  he 
not  stand  a  better  chance  of  being  elevated  to  the  high- 
est, most  honourable,  and  most  lucrative  offices  ? 

The  grand  heresy  on  the  subject  of  education  seems  to 
have  arisen  from  the  usage  which  obtained  at  an  early 
period  in  modern  European  society,  and  which  many 
centuries  have  sanctioned  and  confirmed — namely :  that 
a  learned  or  liberal  education  was  and  is  deemed  import- 
ant only  for  a  liberal  profession,  or  for  gentlemen  of 
wealth  and  leisure.  Hence  the  church,  the  bar,  and  the 
medical  art  have  nearly  monopolized  the  learning  of  the 
world.  Our  people  reason  and  act  in  accordance  with 
the  same  absurd  and  aristocratic  system.  The  cui  bono 
is  upon  every  tongue.  "What  good,  it  is  asked,  will 
college  learning  do  my  son  ?  He  is  to  be  a  farmer,  a 
mechanic,  a  merchant."  Now,  I  would  answer  such  a 
question,  in  the  first  place,  directly,  thus:  "A  college 
education,  or  the  best,  most  thorough  and  most  exten- 
sive education  that  can  be  acquired,  will  be  of  immense 
benefit  to  your  son,  simply  as  a  farmer,  mechanic,  mer- 
chant, manufacturer,  sailor  or  soldier."  And  I  would 
patiently  endeavour  to  show  him  how,  and  in  what 
respects;  but  I  will  not  attempt  to  illustrate  such 
truisms  at  present.  But,  in  the  second  place,  I  would 
reply  to  my  plain  friend's  interrogatory,  thus  :  "  Educate 
your  son  in  the  best  manner  possible,  because  you  ex- 
pect him  to  be  a  Man,  and  not  a  Jioose  or  an  ox.  You 
cannot  tell  what  good  he  may  achieve,  or  what  import- 
ant offices  he  may  discharge  in  his  day.  For  aught  you 
know,  he  may,  if  you  do  your  duty  by  him,  become  the 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  175 

President  of  the  United  States.  At  any  rate,  he  has 
reason  and  understanding,  which  ought  to  be  cultivated 
for  their  own  sake.  Should  he  eventually  live  in  the 
most  humble  retirement,  and  subsist  by  the  hardest 
manual  labour,  still  he  may  enjoy  an  occasional  intel- 
lectual feast  of  the  purest  and  most  exhilarating  kind." 
If  all  our  la])ouring  fellow-citizens  could  relish  books 
and  should  have  access  to  them,  what  a  boundless  field 
of  innocent  recreation  and  profitable  entertainment 
would  not  be  always  at  hand  and  within  their  reach  ? 
What  a  flood  of  cheering  light  and  happiness  would  not 
be  shed  upon  the  dark  path,  and  poured  into  the  bitter 
cup,  of  millions  of  rational  immortal  beings ;  who,  at 
present,  rank  but  little  above  the  brute  in  their  pursuits, 
habits  and  enjoyments? 

In  reference  to  elementary  education,  a  parent  ought 
never  to  inqure  what  his  child  is  to  be — whether  a 
farmer  or  a  lawyer — but  should  educate  him  in  the  best 
manner  practicable,  and  endeavour  to  inspire  him  with 
sentiments  of  virtue  and  independence,  which  would 
preserve  him  from  the  vulgar  pride  of  being  ashamed 
to  earn  his  living  b}'  honest  industr}^  Besides,  learning 
is  itself  a  treasure — an  estate — of  which  no  adverse  for- 
tune can  ever  deprive  its  possessor.  It  will  accompany, 
and  console,  and  support  him  to  the  world's  end,  and  to 
the  close  of  life. 

Our  farmers  and  labouring  classes  have  as  much 
leisure  for  miscellaneous  reading  and  study  as  the  pro- 
fessional— or  even  as  the  wealthy  or  fashionable  idlers 
who  do  nothing.      Paradoxical  as  this  may  seem,  it  is 


176  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

notoriously  the  fact.  Even  in  England,  where  this  lei- 
sure is  not  half  so  great  as  the  poorest  of  our  people 
habitually  enjoy,  it  has  been  discovered  that  the  most 
ignorant  and  debased  and  hard-worked  manufacturing 
operatives  have  abundant  time  for  much  intellectual 
cultivation. 

Poverty,  indeed,  in  a  strict  sense,  is  not  necessarily 
the  lot  of  any  American.  It  is  true,  we  hear  a  great 
deal  about  the  poor:  and  one  might  infer  from  news- 
paper essays  and  demagogue  speeches,  that  the  poor  were, 
or  ought  to  be,  the  only  objects  of  legislative  care  and 
public  sympathy.  —  That  they  were  a  numerous,  op- 
pressed, unfortunate  race,  and  that  the  rich  were 
their  natural  and  worst  enemies.  Hence  the  unceas- 
ing clamour  and  declamation  against  the  rich  from 
certain  quarters  —  as  if  every  man  who  gets  wealth 
must  of  necessity  grind  the  poor,  and  prosper  at  their 
expense.  Whereas,  there  are  no  poor,  that  is,  no  poor 
classes — no  serfs  or  villains  —  no  degraded  caste  of 
paupers,  except  the  slaves,  in  all  our  happy  country. 
Our  Constitution  and  laws  secure  to  every  man  the 
fruits  of  his  own  industry  and  talents.  Our  rich  men 
have  all  been  poor.  What  was  the  condition  of  the 
rich  men  of  Tennessee,  ten,  twenty,  thirty  or  forty  years 
ago  ?  Have  they  not  all,  or  nearly  all,  risen  from  the 
humbler  conditions  of  life — and  many  from  the  lowest 
poverty?  And  are  they  tJierefore  unworthy  or  dangerous 
citizens?  Do  they  not  deserve  well  of  the  State  for 
having  thus  meliorated  their  own  condition  and  added 
to  its  wealth,  prosperity  and  reputation?     Are  they  now 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  In 

to  be  regarded  with  envy,  jealousy,  and  suspicion,  after 
having  given  such  decisive  proof  of  superior  in(histry, 
economy,  perseverance,  enterprise  or  sagacity?  What 
would  have  been  the  present  aspect  of  Tennessee  if 
every  man  had  remained  in  his  primitive  poverty?  Or 
how  could  the  poor  be  benefited  if  the  rich  were  sud- 
denly stripped  of  all  their  possessions  ?  Where  is  it  that 
the  poor  man  fares  best  and  prospers  most?  Is  it  among 
the  rich  or  the  indigent  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  are  not  the  abject,  incorrigible 
poor  always  idle,  vicious,  intemperate,  reckless  —  and 
therefore  an  incumbrance  and  a  burden  to  the  commu- 
nity? Show  me  a  poor  man,  in  the  enjojmient  of  health, 
who  never  seeks  to  improve  his  condition,  and  I  Avill 
show  you  a  man  fit  or  fitting  for  the  penitentiary  or  the 
gallows.  Your  thrifty,  prudent,  money-making  people 
are  universally  the  best  members  of  society.  To  all 
general  rules  there  will  be  exceptions.  I  do  not  mean 
to  assert  that  every  wretchedly  poor  man  is  a  criminal. 
He  may  be  unfortunate,  and  a  just  object  of  charity.  A 
rich  man,  too,  may  be  a  knave,  and  a  petty  tyrant.  I 
beg  to  be  understood  as  speaking  generally  on  this  sub- 
ject, and  in  reference  to  the  great  body  of  the  people. 
As  society  advances  in  a  new  country,  the  distance  be- 
tween those  who  have  amassed  fortunes  and  those  who 
are  born  poor  or  who  remain  stationary  in  their  original 
poverty,  becomes  more  marked  and  striking.  And  the 
poor  seem,  or  rather  fancy  themselves,  fixed  in  their 
humble  condition,  and  are  often  in  despair  of  any 
VOL.  r.  12 


178  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

amelioration.  What  can  be  done  for  them?  I  will  tell 
you. 

Give  them  an  education.  Provide  for  them  the  means 
of  instruction  to  as  great  an  extent  and  amount  as  pos- 
sible. A  well  educated  poor  3-outhwill  always  rise  to 
honourable  distinction.  One  successful  instance  will 
stimulate  others  to  try  the  same  course.  And  thus  a 
spirit  of  emulation — an  ambition  to  excel — will  be  dif- 
fused throughout  the  ranks  of  our  poor  fellow-citizens, 
which  will  speedily  elevate  them  to  a  respectable  stand- 
ing, and  qualify  them  to  reach  the  highest  posts  of 
honour  and  fortune.  This  is  a  matter  of  every  day 
occurrence  in  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States.  There, 
the  labouring  farmer  or  mechanic,  who  would  be  thought 
a  very  poor  man  in  Tennessee,  and  who  labours  more 
intensely  than  a  Tennessee  slave,  strives  by  every  effort 
and  sacrifice  to  procure  for  one  or  more  of  his  sons  a 
liberal  education.  The  son,  thus  educated,  as  soon  as 
he  leaves  college,  is  able  to  provide  for  himself,  by 
teaching  school  perhaps,  until  he  studies  a  profession — 
assists  in  educating  his  younger  brothers — and,  by  and 
by,  appears  among  the  distinguished  lawyers,  physicians, 
divines,  professors,  legislators  or  judges  of  his  country. 
The  good  old  father  and  mother  are  then  ampty  re- 
warded for  all  their  toils  and  self-denial,  by  a  grateful, 
honourable  and  affluent  posterity;  who  cause  their  sun 
to  set  in  peace,  and  their  gray  hairs  to  descend  with  joy 
and  hope  to  the  grave. 

I  have  witnessed  hundreds  of  such  cases.  Now 
nothing  of  this  kind  could  take  place  were  it  not  for 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  179 

the  well  endo-wed  colleges  ^Yith  Avliicli  that  portion  of 
our  country  is  favoured.  Colleges  are  there,  as  they 
will  be  everywhere,  the  genuine  levellers  of  all  distinc- 
tions created  by  mere  wealth.  They  open  their  doors 
wide,  and  dispense  their  honours  to  merit,  whether  in 
the  garb  of  penury  or  affluence.  And  real  merit  will 
presently  find  or  create  a  path  to  just  pre-eminence. 
The  poor  man's  son,  who  knows  that  he  must  live  by 
his  wits,  often  outstrips,  in  the  same  career,  the  rich 
man's  son  —  because  the  latter  trusts  to  his  expected 
patrimony,  and  therefore  despises  labour  and  exertion. 
Visit  an}^  Eastern  college,  and  you  will  find  nearly  all 
the  industrious  successful  students  belonging  to  the 
middhng  and  poorer  classes.  Look  again  at  the  thou- 
sands who  are  reputably  practising  the  learned  profes- 
sions, and  you  will  be  told  that  they  have  nobly  risen 
from  the  humblest  walks  of  life.  They  were  once  your 
poor,  (perhaps  despised,)  studious  college  lads,  who  had 
no  money  to  spend  in  the  mad  frolics  and  ruinous  dis- 
sipation, in  which  the  sons  of  fortune  and  family  sought 
notoriety  and  academic  rejioivn ;  but  w^ho  have  long 
since  dwindled  into  comparative  insignificance,  or  sunk 
into  a  premature  grave. 

How  absurd  then  to  depreciate  and  denounce  colleges 
as  being  hostile  to  the  poor  or  beneficial  only  to  the  rich. 
The  truth  is,  the  rich  always  build,  endow  and  sustain 
them,  while  the  comparatively  poor  reap  the  principal 
advantage.  Were  our  opulent  citizens  desirous  to  erect 
themselves  into  a  distinct  and  superior  order — a  moneyed 
aristocracy — they  could  not  devise  a  surer  method  of 


180  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

compassing  so  foul  a  design,  than  hy  discouraging  and 
fro^^ming  upon  every  scheme  for  the  dissemination  of 
loiowledge.  Let  them  put  down  or  prevent  the  esta- 
blishment and  groAvth  of  the  higher  seminaries — of  col- 
leges and  universities — and  the}'  might  then  monopolize 
all  the  intelligence  and  power  of  the  State ;  because  they 
could  easily  educate  their  own  sons  abroad  at  any  ex- 
pense, and  thus  fit  them  for  the  learned  professions  and 
for  all  the  higher  offices  of  the  Re^Dublic.  "Will  the  peo- 
ple tamely  submit  to  so  gross  a  usurpation,  and  suffer 
themselves  to  be  cozened  out  of  their  dearest  birthright 
and  most  valuable  privileges  ? 

There  are,  we  will  suppose,  five  thousand  rich,  or 
comparatively^  rich  families,  more  or  less,  in  Tennessee, 
who  are  able  and  willing  to  give  their  sons  a  liberal 
education  somewhere.  Shall  the}'  be  induced  or  re- 
quired to  establish  seminaries  of  the  proper  character, 
at  their  own  expense,  here  at  home,  and  for  their 
own  accommodation  ?  Or  shall  the}^  be  discouraged  or 
prevented  from  doing  this ;  and  thus  be  tempted  or 
constrained  to  send  their  sons  to  Massachusetts,  Con- 
necticut or  New  York,  and  to  pay  those  States  an 
annual  tribute  of  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  ? 
Would  not  our  poor  labouring  people  be  directly  and 
greatly  benefited  by  the  expenditure  of  this  money 
among  ourselves  ? 

How  could  the  poor,  let  me  ask,  in  any  possible  way, 
be  injured  or  oppressed?  They  are  not  expected  to 
advance  a  farthing  of  the  funds.  What  they  have  not, 
they  cannot   give.      The   State  could    not  extort  from 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  181 

them,  in  the  shape  of  taxes,  what  they  do  not  possess. 
The  poor  then,  and  all  their  noisy  pretended  friends 
may  hold  their  peace,  and  quiet  their  patriotic  alarms 
on  this  subject.  They  may  rest  assured  that  their 
empty  purse  will  not  be  made  the  lighter  by  any  literary 
scheme  which  may  be  projected.  Colleges  have  always 
been  reared  by  the  rich ;  and,  no  doubt,  for  the  selfish 
purpose  of  serving  their  own  interests — while  universal 
experience  demonstrates  that  the  poor,  after  all,  reap 
the  benefits  in  a  ten-fold  proportion.  This  is  true,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  even  in  England  —  still  more  in 
Scotland  and  German}^ — and  most  of  all  in  the  portions 
of  our  own  country  where  such  institutions  exist.  Such 
will  be  the  result  here.  Even  our  own  University,  em- 
barrassed as  it  has  ever  been  for  w^ant  of  means,  has 
already  educated  several  indigent  youths  gratis.  And 
this  is  more  than  is  ever  done  at  the  Eastern  seminaries. 
For  there  the  poor  must  pay  as  w^ell  as  the  rich — except 
such  as  are  supported  by  some  charitable  fund  or  asso- 
ciation. But  there  an  education  is  esteemed  a  fortune. 
And  the  father  who  can  struggle  along  so  as  to  carry 
his  son  through  college,  is  content  to  leave  him  to  his 
own  exertions  without  further  care  or  provision.  Let 
the  rich  then,  from  whatever  motive,  build  up  and 
endow  colleges ;  and  spend  their  money  at  home.  We 
shall  soon  see  how  the  poor  will  contrive  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  advantages  thus  presented  to  their  view 
and  within  their  reach. 

But  again,  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  there  is  in 
the  communitj'  another  class  of  citizens,  vastly  larger 


182  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

than  both  of  them  put  together — namely,  the  middhng 
class,  and  the  best  class — all  of  whom  might  educate  pne 
or  more  sons  at  college,  at  an  expense  of  from  fifty  to  a 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  per  year,  who  could  never  send 
their  sons  abroad  at  an  expense  of  from  five  hundred  to 
a  thousand  a  year.  Will  the  State  do  nothing  for  this 
large  and  respectable  body  of  her  citizens  ?  Will  the 
people  themselves  continue  blind  and  deaf  to  the  sound- 
est principles  of  policy,  to  the  loudest  calls  of  duty,  and 
to  the  most  sacred  claims  of  posterity?  The  merest 
trifle  contributed  by  each  would  place  advantages  within 
the  reach  of  the  whole,  which  no  individual  could  other- 
wise possibly  command.  Let  it  be  remembered,  more- 
over, that  the  rich  or  their  children  may  become  poor — 
that  the  poor  may  become  rich — that  the  intermediate 
class  may  change  places  with  both  or  either — and  con- 
sequently that  the  permanent  interests  of  all  must  be 
identical. 

In  this  conuexion,  I  may  further  remark,  that  govern- 
ment can  always  make  provision,  if  it  please,  for  the 
gratuitous  instruction  of  the  poor  at  any  college  under 
its  control,  or  of  which  it  may  choose  to  become  the 
benefactor.  Suppose  the  professors  were  paid  from  the 
public  treasury,  upon  the  express  condition,  that  all  indi- 
gent youths,  suitably  qualified,  should  be  taught  without 
charge ;  and  that  fees  should  be  demandable  only  from 
the  rich,  or  from  those  able  to  pay.  Such  an  arrange- 
ment would  be  equitable,  benevolent,  and  beneficial  to 
all  the  parties  concerned.  Should  our  M'orthy,  en- 
lightened   and    patriotic    legislature    see    fit,    in    their 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  183 

wisdom,  to  vote  a  permanent  annuity  to  the  colleges 
at  Knoxvillc  and  Nashville,  sufficient  to  maintain  the 
whole  or  a  part  of  their  instructors,  upon  condition  that 
the  poor  meritorious  j^outh  of  Tennessee,  after  liaving 
passed  reputably  through  the  inferior  schools,  should  be 
privileged  to  complete  their  studies  at  those  institutions 
free  of  expense  —  they  would  confer  a  favour  on  the 
cause  of  learning  and  upon  the  commonwealth,  the 
value  of  which  would  augment  with  the  lapse  of  ages : 
and  posterity  would  revert  to  this  as  the  brightest  and 
most  auspicious  epoch  in  their  history. 

In  this  way  too,  the  State  would  soon  be  supplied 
with  accomplished  schoolmasters.  For,  be  it  known 
and  remembered,  that  nowhere  on  earth  does  there 
exist  a  good  and  efficient  system  of  common  schools, 
except  where  colleges  and  universities  are  most  gene- 
rously cherished;  and  where  the  largest  number  of 
poor  youths  are  found  among  their  alumni.  These 
become  teachers  of  necessity.  This  is  matter  of  fact — 
of  universal  experience — and  the  most  ingenious  special 
pleader  in  behalf  of  popular  education  cannot  cite  an 
exception  to  the  rule.  The  truth  is,  the  cause  of  col- 
leges and  of  schools  of  all  sorts  is  one  and  indivisible. 
And  he  who  should  attempt  to  establish  good  common 
schools  without  colleges,  would  be  compelled  to  import 
a  monthly  cargo  of  foreign  teachers,  or  stand  before  the 
public  a  convicted  Utopian  visionary. 

Men  of  talents  and  of  adequate  literary  qualifications 
will  never  become  teachers  of  choice,  except  where  the 
profession  is  both  lucrative  and  honourable.     No  occupa- 


184  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

tion  is  deemed  more  vexatious,  and  none  is  so  utterly 
thankless.  But  men  will  teach  school  rather  tjian 
starve :  and  when  our  colleges  shall  send  forth  their 
2)oor  graduates  who  must  immediately  do  something  for 
a  livelihood,  they  will  of  course  be  willing  to  teach. 
They  will  look  out  for  academies  or  classical  schools  in 
the  first  instance  : — and  here  they  may  train  many  per- 
haps, poor  like  themselves,  who  will  teach  common 
schools.  Thus,  in  time,  the  market  will  be  supplied. 
All  the  schools  will  co-operate  in  the  production  of  this 
supply.  They  will  mutually  aid  and  sustain  each  other. 
The  most  gifted  and  enterprising  lads  in  the  lowest 
schools  will  contrive,  no  matter  how  poor,  to  advance  to 
the  higher;  and  eventually  by  the  beneficence  of  the 
State  as  already  proposed,  they  will  gain  admission  into 
the  college.  And  thus  the  whole  intellectual  machinery 
will  be  fairly  at  work ;  and,  by  the  State  purse,  may  be 
duly  kept  in  operation  forever.  It  will  not  then  be 
necessary  to  send  our  governors  over  half  the  continent  in 
search  of  civil  engineers  whenever  a  turnpike  road  is  to 
be  formed  or  a  canal  to  be  dug — nor  our  agents  all  over 
New  England  in  quest  of  academical  instructors  when- 
ever a  college  or  high  school  for  boys  or  girls  is  to  be 
established — nor  to  depend  on  the  East  for  our  lawyers, 
physicians,  divines,  statesmen,  judges,  editors,  bank- 
clerks,  musicians,  genteel  beggars,  and  castle-builders  of 
every  name  and  degree.  Some  of  these  we  shall  then 
have  the  sense  to  do  without,  and  the  others  we  shall 
manuf\icture  at  home — and  thus  save  both  our  cash  and 
our  credit. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  185 

Some  very  obvious  truths  need  to  be  often  inculcated 
and  reiterated,  before  they  obtain  a  general  currency,  or 
produce  any  practical  effects.      The  people  will  decide 
correctly  about  their  own  interests  when  fully  instructed. 
And  in  regard  to  schools  and  colleges,  they  would  long 
since  have  pronounced  an  enlightened  judgment,  had 
half  the  pains  been  taken  to  inform,  which  have  been 
employed  to  blind,  prejudice  and  mislead  them.     Should 
the  orthodox  advocates  of  education  succeed,  in  their 
frequent  attempts,  in  sundry  ^vays,  in  gaining  a  few  dis- 
ciples to  the  true  faith,  some  progress  will  of  course  be 
made   in   the  work  of  general  conversion.      I  think  it 
would  be  easy  to  convince  any  honest  man,  learned  or 
unlearned,  rich  or  poor,  of  the  truth,  sound  policy,  and 
radical  importance  of  all  the  positions  usually  assumed 
on  this  subject.     And  I  cherish  the  hope  that  all  col- 
lege graduates  (always  excepting  jyro  tempore  renegade 
candidates  upon  the  stumjt,)  will  be  the  staunch,  reso- 
lute, intrepid,  zealous  friends  of  the  college  cause,  and  of 
their  own  Alma  Hater  in  particular.     That  they  will  be 
friendly  to  common  schools — to  the  universal  diffusion 
of  knowledge  among  the  people — is  a  matter  of  course. 
For  who  ever  heard  of  a  liberally  educated  man  who 
was  not  the  hearty  devoted  supporter  of  every  judicious 
common  school  system  ?     Such  an  anomaly  our  country 
has  not  yet  produced.     Our  most  illustrious  patriots  and 
sages  have  been  the  founders  of  colleges,  and  apostles  in 
the  cause  of  universal  education. 

It  is  no  uncommon  thing,  in  our  country,  for  men  of 
considerable  influence  to  boast  that   they  have  never 


186  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

seen  the  inside  of  a  college  —  that,  like  Franklin  .and 
Washington,  they  have  advanced  in  knowledgQ  and 
reputation  by  their  own  unassisted  efforts;  and  conse- 
quently, that  colleges  are  good  for  nothing,  or  at  best 
fitted  only  for  the  training  of  drones  and  blockheads. 
Now,  besides  the  extreme  modesty  of  recording  their 
own  names  upon  the  same  tablets  with  Franklin  and 
Washington,  they  might  be  reminded  that  those  truly 
great  men  never  uttered  such  a  boast,  and  never  decried 
such  institutions.  Franklin  was  the  father  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  and  Washington  endowed  a  col- 
lege in  his  native  State.  No  man,  therefore,  will  ever 
give  any  very  convincing  evidence  that  he  resembles 
Franklin  or  Washington,  by  a  supercilious  affectation  of 
contempt  for  colleges,  or  by  a  narrow,  invidious,  sys- 
tematic, malignant  hostility  towards  them. 

We  are  exceedingly  prone  to  boast  of  our  own  country 
as  the  most  enlightened,  free  and  virtuous  in  the  world. 
The  English  entertain  the  same  fancy  in  regard  to  their 
country.  Both  probably  are,  in  some  respects,  greatly 
mistaken.  More  persons  can  be  found  in  England,  and 
in  several  of  our  States,  who  cannot  read  and  write,  than 
in  many  of  the  kingdoms  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
A  well  instructed  people  cannot  be  enslaved,  be  the 
nominal  form  of  their  government  what  it  may.  A 
grossly  ignorant  people  will  be  slaves,  even  under  the 
purest  republican  system.  A  man  who  will  sell  his  vote 
for  money  or  grog,  or  who  can  be  wheedled  out  of  it  by 
the  arts  or  eloquence  of  the  demagogue,  is  not  a  freeman. 
And  there  are  thousands  of  snch  persons  in  England  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  187 

in  America.  These  arc,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
bondmen  —  the  mere  pliant  tools  and  instruments  of 
crafty  and  aspiring  Catilines  and  Mirabeaus  —  and 
would  assist  in  placing  them  on  a  throne,  just  as  rea- 
dily as  in  elevating  them  to  the  humblest  post  of  power 
and  distinction.  Let  a  large  majority  of  our  people  be- 
come thus  ignorant  and  degraded — and  the  most  despe- 
rate and  daring  adventurer,  or  the  most  obsequious 
pander  to  the  popular  humour,  will  assume  the  imperial 
purple,  and  laugh  to  scorn  all  our  simple  constitutional 
paper  guards  and  checks  and  rights  and  liberties. 

In  Scotland,  Holland,  Denmark,  Sweden,  Prussia, 
several  of  the  Swiss  Cantons,  and  Germany  generally, 
there  are  more  universities,  athenosa,  gymnasia,  ly- 
ceums,  higher,  intermediate  and  common  schools,  pro- 
portionally, than  in  any  other  region  of  the  globe  — 
except  New  England  and  New  York.  In  them  it  is 
rare  to  meet  with  an  individual  who  cannot  read  and 
write  :  and  it  is  equally  rare  to  meet  wdth  a  pauper  or 
a  criminal.  The  mass  of  the  people  are  represented,  by 
all  impartial  travellers,  as  being  more  intelligent,  vir- 
tuous, privileged  and  happy  than  any  other  population 
in  Europe.  The  lower  orders,  especially  in  some  of  the 
smaller  German  States,  are  regarded  as  among  the  most 
favoured  in  the  world.  Several  Americans  of  distin- 
guished talents  and  learning,  wdio  have  resided  for  years 
in  those  countries,  testify  to  the  same  general  fact.  One, 
with  whom  I  am  well  acquainted,  who  recently  spent 
two  years  at  Berlin,  declares  that  he  never  met  even  a 
poor  l)oy  selling  matches  in  the  streets  of  that  royal 


188  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

metropolis,  (and  lie  made  repeated  experiments  of  .the 
kind,)  who  could  not  read,  and  readily  answer  any,  com- 
mon question  on  the  historical  parts  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments — so  thorough  and  universal  is  the  common 
school  system  in  that  kingdom.  Even  in  Austria,  des- 
potic as  is  the  government,  there  are  schools  in  every 
village,  the  masters  of  which  are  paid  from  the  imperial 
treasury.  "No  one  is  allowed  to  marry  who  cannot 
read,  write,  and  show  some  acquaintance  with  arith- 
metic. And,  under  a  heavy  penalty,  no  master  can 
employ  a  common  workman  who  is  not  able  to  read  and 
write.  Small  works  on  moral  subjects,  written  with 
great  care,  are  circulated  among  the  lower  classes. 
Hence  crimes  are  extremely-  rare;  and  in  the  course 
of  a  twelvemonth  scarcely  two  executions  take  place 
even  at  Vienna"  —  with  a  population  half  as  large  as 
that  of  Tennessee,  and  with  a  most  vigilant  and  ener- 
getic police,  Avhich  never  suffers  a  criminal  to  escape  the 
legal  penalty. 

Ill  the  above  named  kingdoms,  provision  is  made  by 
law  for  the  competent  instruction  of  all  the  poor  children 
of  both  sexes  without  exception.  In  several  of  them 
also,  seminaries  are  established  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
educating  teachers.  Hence  the  body  of  the  common 
people  are  vastly  superior  to  the  same  classes  in  every 
other  part  of  Europe  where  the  government  has  not  in- 
terposed in  their  behalf  Now,  if  the  peasantry,  the 
labouring  and  poorer  orders,  are  found  to  be  intelligent, 
moral,  temperate,  frugal,  industrious,  contented  and 
cheerful — with  no  haughty,   feudal,   baronial    lords  to 


EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES.  189 

harass,  molest  or  oppress  them,  as  in  Russia  and  Poland 

—  assured  that  they  are  exposed  to  neither  extortion, 
robbery  nor  murder — that  the  strong  arm  of  power  is 
ever  at  hand,  not  to  injure  or  distress,  but  to  shield  and 
defend  them  from  injustice,  danger  and  violence — pro- 
tected, in  short,  in  the  secure  enjoyment  of  all  their 
natural  civil  rights,  even  though,  like  the  clergy  in  Ten- 
nessee, they  may  be  destitute  of  every  political  franchise 

—  we  cannot  pronounce  their  condition  so  very  deplo- 
rable as  to  be  without  a  parallel  in  countries  presumed 
to  be  much  more  highly  favoured.  For  example — Eng- 
lish travellers  themselves  seldom  fail  to  point  out  the 
striking  contrast  w^hich  a  happy,  joyous,  peaceful  assem- 
blage of  German  cotters  on  the  village  green,  dancing  to 
the  music  of  their  own  favourite  flute  and  violin,  pre- 
sents to  the  ignorant,  boisterous,  swaggering,  drunken, 
fighting,  venal  mob,  which  they  oftentimes  encounter  at 
home  at  the  hustings,  the  race-course,  the  stated  fairs, 
and  other  occasions  of  popular  meetings  and  amuse- 
ments. It  is  just  possible  too,  that  ice  might  have 
reason  to  blush  were  a  similar  comparison  instituted  in 
relation  to  the  same  matters.  Even  the  periodical  cele- 
brations of  our  national  independence  are  not  always 
characterized  by  the  most  musical  concords  or  fraternal 
harmony.  Our  election  days,  moreover,  are  not  univer- 
sally the  brightest  and  happiest  among  the  dies  festi  of 
the  calendar.  Perhaps  letters  or  music,  or  both  com- 
bined, might  exert  a  salutarj'  and  humanizing  influence, 
auspicious  both  to  our  comfort  and  to  our  reputation. 
Let  us  make  the  trial. 


190  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

If  education  can  eflcct  such  marvels  in  countries 
where  the  people  have  little  or  no  agency  in  their 
own  government,  what  might  it  not  achieve  in  a  Ke- 
public  where  every  man  constitutes  an  integral  part  of 
the  sovereignty?  Were  the  Russian  and  Polish  serfs  as 
well  instructed  as  the  German  peasants,  could  they  be 
retained  in  a  state  of  vassalage  —  adscrlpti  glehce  — 
scarcely  preferable  to  the  worst  species  of  West  India 
servitude?  But  the  schoolmaster  has  not  yet  been 
abroad  among  the  millions,  even  in  the  chivalrous  but 
ill-starred  land  of  our  own  illustrious  Pulaski  and  Kos- 
ciusko. It  matters  little,  therefore,  to  the  Polish  boor 
whether  his  master's  master  be  Muscovite,  Austrian, 
Prussian,  or  native.  Ilis  own  lot  changes  not  with  the 
change  of  rulers.  He  has  nothing  to  gain  or  lose  in  any 
political  revolution — except  that,  in  every  conflict,  his 
own  blood  may  be  shed,  and  his  miseries  and  life  be 
terminated  together. 

In  poor  old  Scotland,  there  are  four  ancient  respect- 
able universities,  with  the  character  of  which  every 
body  is  acquainted.  These  furnish  teachers  to  her  ex- 
cellent parochial  schools. 

In  the  Netherlands  there  are  six  universities.  Their 
several  incomes,  during  the  year  1828,  were  as  follows: 
Louvain,  $48,000.  — Liege,  $28,000.  — Ghent,  $28,000. 
—  Leyden,  $32,000.  —  Utrecht,  $28,000.  — Groningen, 
$28,000.  Each  has  a  large  Library,  a  Botanic  Garden, 
a  Cabinet  of  Natural  History,  a  Chemical  Laboratory,  a 
Hospital,  an  Anatomical  Museum,  and  a  Hall  for  Dis- 
sections. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  191 

111  Germany,  there  are  twenty-two  (onee,  forty)  flou- 
rishing universities — having  each  from  thirty  to  ninety 
distinguished  professors  and  instructors — with  immense 
libraries  and  every  other  useful  and  desirable  appendage. 
To  several  of  these,  American  graduates  have  often  re- 
sorted to  complete  their  education.  In  the  twenty-two 
institutions  just  referred  to,  there  were,  in  1825,  no  less 
than  1059  instructors,  nearly  all  of  whom  had  once  been 
poor  youths — and  1G,432  students,  more  than  half  said 
to  be  poor  and  destined  to  become  schoolmasters. 

In  France,  the  system  of  education  for  the  higher  and 
middling  classes,  has  been  recently  pronounced  the  best 
in  the  world,  by  impartial  and  enlightened  judges,  both 
British  and  American.  And  the  most  efficient  measures 
are  taking  by  the  government  to  instruct  the  lower 
classes — which  have  hitherto  been  deplorably  neglected. 
This  mere  glance  at  a  portion  of  the  old  world  and  of 
our  own  Eastern  States,  may  suffice  to  teach  us  our  in- 
feriority in  every  gradation  and  department  of  education. 
— That  neither  our  poor  nor  our  rich  people  are  equally 
privileged  in  this  respect — that  the  cause  of  universities 
and  common  schools  is  identical — that  they  prosper  to- 
o-ether  or  not  at  all — at  least,  that  the  latter  never  have 
flourished  where  the  former  were  overlooked. 

I  feel  no  disposition  to  undervalue  my  country,  or  her 
institutions,  whether  political  or  literary.  But  I  do  think 
it  time  to  have  done  with  that  puerile  vanity  which  leads 
to  incessant  boasting  and  self-laudation — as  if  perfection 
were  stamped  upon  everything  American.  While  we 
cherish   this   arrogant,    supercilious,   overweening,   self- 


192  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUESES. 

sufficient  spirit,  we  shall  never  seek  nor  desire  im- 
provement—  because  we  fancy  that  the  very  acme  of 
human  excellence  has  been  attained.  The  first  step 
towards  any  ameliorating  process  is  a  consciousness  of 
our  need  of  it.  Let  us  dare  to  look  at  what  is  wrong, 
vicious,  defective,  pernicious — at  the  very  worst  of  our 
case  —  and  then  intrepidly  apply  ourselves  to  .the  re- 
medy, to  the  work  of  correction  and  reform,  with  steady 
perseverance,  and  resolute  determination  to  exterminate 
evil,  and  to  advance  the  cause  of  truth,  virtue,  know- 
ledge, freedom  and  happiness  among  all  the  people 
throughout  our  land. 

The  grand  inquiry  of  the  present  enterprising  and 
philanthropic  age  is — how  shall  the  human  race  be  made 
better,  wiser,  happier  ?  Governments  are  beginning  to 
manifest  a  deep  interest  in  this  momentous  theme. 
Statesmen,  as  well  as  philosophers,  are  studying  and 
devising  the  ways  and  means  to  ameliorate  the  charac- 
ter and  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  All 
agree  that  education  is  the  instrument  to  be  emplo^'ed  in 
the  work  ;  however  much  they  may  differ  as  to  the  kind 
or  degree  adapted  to  the  purpose. 

Poverty,  oppression,  crime,  are  the  great  evils  to  be 
eradicated  or  diminished.  We  have  shown  how  the 
two  first  Avill  disappear  under  the  magic  influence  of 
the  talented  and  faithful  schoolmaster.  And  no  truth 
or  principle  has,  perhaps,  been  more  universally  admit- 
ted by  men  competent  to  judge,  than  that  education  is 
the  most  effectual,  if  not  the  only  preventive  of  crime. 
Education,   I   mean,  physical,  moral,   intellectual,  reli- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUKSES.  193 

gioiis  :  Which  trains  Aouth  to  habits  of  industry  and 
morality,  as  well  as  to  mental  effort  and  discipline : 
Which  instructs  them  in  some  useful  and  honest  occu- 
pation to  live  by.  as  well  as  imbues  their  minds  with 
virtuous  principles,  a  taste  for  knowledge  and  a  thirst 
for  continued  improvement. 

Our  legislatures,  in  several  of  the  States,  are  alread}- 
acting  upon  this  principle  :  although  the}'  seem,  in  some 
instances,  to  have  begun  at  the  wrong  end,  and  with  the 
most  unpromising  and  undeserving  materials.  The}' 
have  established,  or  are  establishing  penitentiaries  for 
the  very  laudable  purpose,  as  the}'  doubtless  believe,  of 
reforming  lazy,  vicious,  ignorant,  hardened  felons — by 
adopting  precisely  the  system  which  would  have  pre- 
served them  from  crime  and  infamy,  had  it  been  resorted 
to  at  an  earlier  period.  That  is,  in  these  expensive. 
commodious,  well  regulated  penitentiaries,  or  rather 
universities,  the  convicts  are  most  thoroughly  educated. 
They  are  taught  useful  and  lucrative  trades,  so  that 
they  can,  if  ihey  nnJl,  in  due  time,  earn  an  lionesi  liveli- 
hood. They  learn  to  read,  write  and  cipher — and  often 
acquire  other  branches  of  science  and  literature  accord- 
ing to  their  diligence  and  ability.  They  also  receive 
moral  and  religious  instruction — study  the  Bible — com- 
mit to  memory  its  salutary  truths  and  precepts — and 
have  the  gospel  statedly  preached  to  them  by  pious  and 
devoted  chaplains.  They  are  kept  from  all  vitiating 
associations  among  themselves  —  are  lodged  in  solitar}' 
cells  at  night  —  are  prohibited  the  use  of  inebriating 
liquors  altogether,  however  intemperate  they  may  have 

VOL.  I.  13 


194  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

previously  been :  in  short,  they  are  most  thoroughly 
guarded,  watched,  employed,  disciplined,  instructed,  se- 
cluded from  every  temptation  to  vice,  and  cut  off  from 
all  opportunity  of  indulgence.  So  that,  at  the  period  of 
graduation,  they  issue  from  these  great  State  Schools  bet- 
ter qualified  for  active,  useful  and  respectable  life  than 
the  mass  of  the  common  people  generally  in  this  country-. 
Whether  they  actually  become  virtuous,  useful  and  re- 
spectable, is  another  matter.  Such,  however,  is  the  end 
aimed  at  by  the  system. 

Thus,  then,  the  State  incurs  the  enormous  expense  of 
making  provision  for  the  most  complete  and  appropriate, 
if  not  the  most  liheral  education  of  its  rogues  and  vaga- 
bonds, while  it  oftentimes  wholly  neglects  its  unoffending 
and  unbefriended  children  and  youth — who  are  growing 
up  in  ignorance  and  vice — and  who  will  not  be  recog- 
nized as  worthy  of  its  fostering  smiles  and  cares  and 
patronage,  until  after  they  shall  have  been  condemned 
as  malefactors !  And  then  they  are  admitted  gratis  into 
the  colleges  and  universities  which  the  State  most  de- 
lights to  honour  and  to  cherish.  The  new  penitentiaries 
in  Connecticut  and  New  York  are  excellent  models  for 
literary  institutions — and  mutatis  miitanclis,  among  the 
very  best  with  which  I  am  acquainted.  If  all  the 
schools  in  our  country,  small  and  great,  were  made,  as 
far  as  practicable,  in  their  principal  features,  to  resemble 
them,  I  should  have  no  fear  of  their  complete  success  in 
training  up  a  generation  to  which  crime  and  pauperism 
would  be  comparatively  unknown. 

Give  to  the  colleges  at  Nashville  and  Knoxville  an 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  195 

organization  similar  to  the  Auburn  Prison  —  so  far,  I 
mean,  as  regards  the  safe  keeping,  moral  discipline, 
healthful  exercise  and  constant  employment  of  their 
inmates,  and  their  absolute  occlusion  from  all  external 
evil  influences — and  bestow  upon  each  of  them  only  a 
moiety  of  the  sum  which  Pennsylvania  has  already  ex- 
pended upon  the  outer  yard  walls  of  but  one  of  her  in- 
cipient penitentiaries — (said  walls  have  cost  $200,000,) 
— and  they  shall  render  the  State  more  service  in  t^venty 
years,  than  all  the  prisons  of  Pennsylvania  will  achieve 
in  a  thousand  ages,  or  than  a  score  of  penitentiaries  would 
effect  in  Tennessee  to  the  end  of  time.  And  yet,  proba- 
bly, before  the  lapse  of  fifty  years,  half  a  million  of  dol- 
lars will  be  expended,  and  with  the  best  intentions  too, 
by  this  State,  agreeably  to  the  prevailing  fashion,  upon 
such  establishments,  for  the  comfortable  accommodation 
of  a  few  hundred  criminals,  who  have  forfeited  all  claim 
to  public  indulgence,  and  certainly  to  the  public  purse. 
Who  deserve  to  be  punished,  not  rewarded.  And  whose 
punishment  ought  not,  at  the  same  time,  to  pwiish  an 
innocent  community  by  its  expensiveness.  Criminals 
ought  always,  as  a  matter  of  equity  and  policy,  to  be 
dealt  with  in  a  way  that  would  occasion  the  least  pos- 
sible expense  to  the  people.  In  our  country,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  wit  of  man  has  been  exercised  to  devise 
the  most  expensive  mode.  Criminals  too  have  become 
the  objects  of  universal  sympathy:  and  reformation  is 
all  the  rage.  As  if  reformation  were  the  only  end  in 
view  in  subjecting  criminals  to  the  penalty  of  violated 
laws. 


196  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Eeformation  is  very  desirable — but  this  is,  by  no 
means,  the  sole  or  primary  end  of  punishment.  '  But 
if  it  were,  penitentiaries  are  not  likely  to  effect  it.  And 
if  tliey  could,  the  people  ought  not  to  be  saddled  with 
the  expense.  All  that  class  of  offenders,  who  would  be 
sentenced  to  a  penitentiary,  ought  to  be  banished  forever 
from  the  State  and  from  the  United  States  —  or  trans- 
ported to  some  Botany  Bay.  Two  objects,  at  least, 
would  be  gained  by  the  latter  course.  The  State  would 
be  freed  from  the  burden  of  maintaining  them,  and  from 
all  danger  of  further  annoyance  or  injury  by  their  ex- 
ample or  misconduct.  And  possibly  a  third  advantage 
would  accrue  to  the  culprits  themselves — namely,  their 
eventual  reformation.  This  is  the  only  reformatory  pro- 
cess which  experience  has  as  yet  fully  tested — and  this 
has  succeeded.  Thousands  of  Old  Baileij  convicts  have 
become  good  citizens  in  America,  South  Africa,  and  New 
Holland — who  certainly  would  have  been  hanged  in  a 
year,  had  they  remained  at  large  in  England.  I  am 
aware  of  the  objections  to  banishment  or  deportation  as 
a  mode  of  punishment  to  be  adopted  in  our  country, 
either  by  any  single  State  or  by  all  the  States  in  con- 
cert; but  I  am  confident  that  they  can  be  easily  and 
thoroughly  obviated.  For  example — Constitutional  dif- 
ficulties could  be  removed  in  a  constitutional  way — by 
the  power  that  formed  the  Constitution.  And  all  the 
States  might  agree  in  adopting  a  uniform  system  on  the 
subject. 

I  imagine  our  people  have  very  little  idea  of  the  ex- 
pense of  prisons,  or  they  would  not  be  so  enamoured  of 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  197 

them.  In  point  of  expense,  colleges  are  as  nothing  in 
the  comparison — a  mere  drop  to  the  ocean.  K  we  could 
ascertain  the  entire  amount  of  money  expended  in  the 
erection  and  maintenance  of  prisons  of  all  sorts,  and  for 
the  arrest,  conviction  and  support  of  their  inmates, 
throughout  the  United  States,  during  the  last  fifty 
years,  no  argument  or  commentary  would  be  necessary 
on  the  subject.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  annual 
pecuniary  loss  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  by 
crime  is  not  less  than  from  eight  to  ten  millions  of  dol- 
lars. The  several  annual  reports  of  the  Prison  Disci- 
pline Society  have  shed  a  flood  of  light  on  this  dark 
subject — have  exhibited  facts  and  details  in  regard  to 
expenditures,  connected  with  defective  or  pernicious 
systems  of  management  and  police,  of  the  most  astound- 
ing and  appalling  character.  I  have  neither  time  nor 
space  for  quotations.  In  general,  it  may  be  remarked, 
that  our  prisons  yield  no  adequate  return  to  the  commu- 
nity— that  they  have  little  or  no  tendency  to  diminish 
crime,  or  to  benefit  either  the  criminal  or  the  public — 
that  most  of  them  are  abominable  nuisances  and  mere 
sinks  of  iniquity  and  coiTuption,  without  a  single  com- 
mendable feature  or  redeeming  quality — that  it  is  even 
doubtful  whether  the  best  of  them  can,  during  any  se- 
ries of  ten  or  twenty  years,  defray  their  own  current 
expenses  by  the  labour  of  the  convicts,  especially  if  the 
cost  of  the  original  outfit  and  all  incidental  charges  be 
fairly  taken  into  the  account — and  that  the  ultimate 
reformation  of  the  criminal  must  be  regarded  as  the 
mere  day-dream  of  credulous  philanthropy. 


198  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

It  is  true  that  uncommonly  favourable  localities  •  for 
certain  kinds  of  profitable  labour — chiefly  in  granite  and 
marl)le— in  large  cities  or  upon  navigable  waters — have 
given  extraordinary  advantages  to  two  or  three  Eastern 
penitentiaries  :  and  their  directors  have  reported  a  con- 
siderable excess  of  proceeds  above  the  annual  expenses. 
Whether  the  interest  of  the  outlay  was  included  in  the 
items  of  expenditure  does  not  appear.  It  is  presumed 
not. 

If  any  method  has  been  or  can  be  devised  by  which 
criminals  may  be  made,  not  only  to  maintain  themselves, 
but  to  contribute  something  to  the  public  funds  by  their 
labour,  it  certainly  would  be  wise  and  politic  thus  to 
employ  them,  and  thereb}^  compel  them  to  render  sub- 
stantial satisfaction  for  the  injuries  which  they  have 
23erpetrated.  But  society  is  under  no  legal  or  moral 
obligation  to  burden  itself  with  their  gratuitous  support. 
This  would  be  in  effect  to  punish  the  innocent  in  order 
to  spare  the  guilty.  Could  the  public,  however,  be 
really  profited  by  the  labour  of  convicts,  there  would  be 
no  inducement,  on  the  score  of  expense  merely,  either 
to  hang  or  transport  them.  Even  the  murderer  would 
be  as  effectually  dead  to  the  world,  if  immured  for  life 
at  hard  labour,  as  if  he  had  been  actually  executed — 
while  some  remuneration  might  be  gained  from  his  in- 
dustry. 

Still,  the  idea  of  reforming  notorious  criminals  in  a 
penitentiary,  and  of  turning  them  loose  again  in  the 
same  community  where  they  are  well  known,  with  a 
ipprk  of  infamy  upon  their  foreheads,  and  the  conscious- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  199 

ness  of  it  in  their  hearts,  does  seem  chimerical  and 
visionary  in  the  extreme.  If  such  unhappy  and  dis- 
graced offenders  are  ever  again  to  assume  the  character 
and  dignity  and  feelings  of  men,  it  must  be  in  a  strange 
country  and  among  new  associates ;  or  among  compa- 
nions of  their  own  caste,  where  none  would  have  the 
right  or  the  effrontery  to  upbraid  or  to  contemn  his  fel- 
low. It  is  true,  some  fifty  or  sixty  individuals,  who 
have  left  the  Auburn  Prison,  are  reported  as  reformed. 
But  time  sufficient  to  test  the  fact  has  not  yet  elapsed. 
Besides,  most  of  them  are  stated  to  have  become  reli- 
gious. If  so,  their  reformation  was  owing  to  the  chap- 
lain, to  the  Bible,  to  rehgious  instruction,  and  not  ex- 
clusively to  the  prison  discipline  —  unless  religious 
instruction  be  a  prominent  part  of  it.  That  religion 
may  effect  such  a  change  will  not  be  doubted ;  because 
it  inculcates  and  inspires  genuine  humility.  That  kind 
of  humility  which  disposes  a  guilty  man  to  submit,  with- 
out a  murmur,  to  any  obloquy,  neglect,  indignity  or 
scorn  to  which  he  may  be  obnoxious.  But  without 
such  an  influence,  I  question  whether  it  be  in  human 
nature,  that  a  man  should  issue  from  his  prison  cell, 
and  take  his  place  in  societ}^  as  an  honest,  orderly, 
respectable  citizen.  Who  would  regard  or  treat  him 
as  honest  and  respectable — or  employ  and  trust  him  as 
such  ? 

If,  after  all,  however,  in  reference  to  this  momentous 
subject,  there  be  no  alternative  but  a  choice  of  evils — if 
we  mitst  choose  among  the  existing  systems  of  prison 
discipUne — I  do  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  the  peniten- 


200  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

tiary  system,  as  it  is  now  in  operation  in  New  York  and 
Connecticut,  vastly  preferable  to  every  other  which  has 
been  tried;  while  the  common  county  jail  system  is  the 
very  worst  in  our  country.  What  that  of  Pennsylvania 
will  prove  to  be,  future  experiment  must  decide. 

My  object  in  adverting  to  this  apparently  not  very 
relevant,  and  certainly  not  the  most  grateful  topic,  was : 

1.  To  notice  the  fact,  that  education  is  the  only  in- 
strument relied  on  by  our  statesmen,  politicians  and 
sages  for  any  salutary  revolution  in  the  character  and 
habits  of  all  classes  and  ages  of  criminals  in  our  most 
approved  penitentiaries  and  houses  of  refuge.  And 
hence  a  fortiori  to  deduce  the  value  and  importance 
of  the  very  same  instrument  in  preventing  crime,  by 
suitably  educating  the  young,  that  they  may  grow  up 
honest,  industrious,  intelligent  and  virtuous  citizens. 

2.  To  show  that  the  expense  of  training  up  the  young 
is  vastly  less  than  must  be  incurred  by  the  support  of 
a  few  adult  criminals,  as  our  prisons  generally  have 
hitherto  been  constructed  and  managed.  And  that  a 
State  had  better  expend  its  treasures  upon  her  innocent 
offspring  than  to  be  at  unreasonable  pains  or  expense 
about  incorrigible,  hopeless,  worthless  offenders. 

3.  To  direct  attention  to  a  few  of  our  best  regulated 
penitentiaries  as  models  for  schools  and  colleges.  From 
my  own  humble  experience  in  the  business  of  education, 
and  from  all  the  information  which  I  have  been  able 
to  procure  on  the  subject,  I  do  believe  that  the  only 
efficient  system  for  the  complete  attainment  of  every 
desirable  end,  is  tliat  which  keeps  youth  constantly  em- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  201 

ployed,  body  and  mind,  and  wliicli  exercises  unceasing 
vigilance  and  absolute  control  day  and  night — which  ex- 
cludes all  vicious  and  vitiating  associates  and  practices 
— which  superintends  all  the  amusements  and  social  in- 
tercourse of  the  pupils — and  which  consequently  requires 
strong  walls  and  numerous  guards ;  or  a  large  body  of 
faithful,  prudent,  devoted  Mentors  to  counsel,  direct,  re- 
strain and  instruct  them  at  all  times,  in  all  places,  and 
under  all  circumstances. 

Such  a  purely  domestic  system  I  never  expect  to  see 
in  practical  operation — at  least,  not  to  the  extent  most 
likely  to  insure  the  happiest  results.  The  expense 
would  be  objected  to  by  a  people  who  can  afford  money 
for  every  fashionable  folly  and  extravagance.  And  its 
strictness,  however  parental  and  salutary,  would  be  com- 
plained of  by  a  people  w^ho  scarcely  subject  their  chil- 
dren to  any  restraint  whatever.  "We  must  do  the  best 
we  can  then  in  the  circumstances  in  which  our  lot  is 
cast.  I  am  not  the  advocate  of  existing  usages  because 
of  their  antiquity  or  authority.  Nor  am  I  fond  of  inno- 
vations merely  for  the  sake  of  novelty  and  experiment. 
I  am  disposed  to  be  reasonable  in  all  things,  and  to  make 
the  best  of  a  bad  or  indifferent  system.  Colleges  and 
Universities  have  never  been  perfect,  nor  as  good  as 
they  might  and  ought  to  have  been.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  common  schools,  and  of  the  higher  schools. 
They  may  all  be  greatly  improved,  even  without  any 
remarkable  or  radical  change  in  their  organization. 
Their  character  and  utility  must  depend  on  the  per- 
sonal  qualifications,    fidelity    and    efforts    of    their    in- 


202  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

structors  and  directors,  more  than  on  any  or  all  other 
circumstances.  A  college,  of  the  old  sort,  may  be  bene- 
ficial or  noxious  to  the  community,  according  as  it  is 
judiciously  or  injudiciously  managed.  And  since,  in  our 
country,  the  sui3reme  and  absolute  control  of  such  insti- 
tutions is  usually  commiitted  to  a  Board  of  Trustees,  they 
of  course  are  directly  responsible  to  the  public  for  their 
proper  government  and  instruction. 

A  principal  cause  of  the  excessive  multiplication  and 
dwarfish  dimensions  of  Western  colleges  is,  no  doubt,  the 
diversity  of  religious  denominations  among  us.  Almost 
every  sect  will  have  its  college,  and  generally  one  at 
least  in  each  State.  Of  the  score  of  colleges  in  Ohio, 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  all  are  sectarian  except  two 
or  three  ;  and  of  course  few  of  them  are  what  they  might 
and  should  be ;  and  the  greater  part  of  them  are  mere 
impositions  on  the  public.  This  is  a  grievous  and  grow- 
ing evil.  Why  colleges  should  be  sectarian,  any  more 
than  penitentiaries,  or  than  bank,  road  or  canal  corpora- 
tions, is  not  very  obvious.  Colleges  are  designed  for  the 
instruction  of  youth  in  the  learned  languages — in  polite 
literature — in  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences — and  not  in 
the  dogmatical  theology  of  any  sect  or  party.  Why  then 
should  they  be  baptized  with  sectarian  names?  Are 
they  to  inculcate  sectarian  Greek,  sectarian  mathema- 
tics, sectarian  logic,  history,  rhetoric,  philosophy  ?  Must 
every  State  be  divided  and  subdivided  into  as  many  col- 
lege associations  as  there  are  religious  sects  within  its 
limits  ?  And  thus,  by  their  mutual  jealousy  and  dis- 
trust, eflectually  prevent  the  usefulness  and  prosperity 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  203 

of  any  one  institution  ?  Why  does  any  sect  covet  the 
exclusive  control  of  a  college,  if  it  be  not  to  promote 
party  and  sectarian  purposes  ? 

I  am  aware  that  as  soon  as  any  sect  succeeds  in  ob- 
taining a  charter  for  a  something  called  a  college,  they 
become,  all  of  a  sudden,  wondrously  liberal  and  catholic. 
They  forthwith  proclaim  to  the  public  that  their  college 
is  the  best  in  the  world — and  withal,  perfectly  free  from 
the  odious  taint  of  sectarianism.  That  youth  of  all  reli- 
gions may  come  to  it  without  the  slightest  risk  of  being 
proselyted  to  the  faith  of  the  governing  sect.  This  is 
very  modest  and  very  specious,  and  very  hollow,  and 
very  hypocritical.  They  hold  out  false  colours  to  allure 
and  to  deceive  the  incautious.  Their  college  is  secta- 
rian, and  they  know  it.  It  is  established  by  a  party — 
governed  by  a  party — taught  by  a  party — and  designed 
to  promote  the  ends  of  a  party.  Else  why  is  it  under 
the  absolute  and  perpetual  management  and  control  of 
a  party?  They  very  eagerly  and  very  naturally  desire 
the  patronage  of  other  sects,  for  the  double  purpose  of 
receiving  pecuniary  aid,  and  of  adding  to  their  numbers 
and  strength  from  the  ranks  of  other  denominations. 

Let  any  religious  sect  w^hatever  obtain  the  absolute 
direction  of  a  college — located  in  a  small  village  or 
retired  part  of  the  country — where  their  religious  in- 
fluence is  paramount,  perhaps  exclusive  —  where  the 
youth  must  necessarily  attend  upon  such  religious  in- 
structions and  exercises  and  ceremonies  as  they  shall 
prescribe — where,  in  fact,  they  can  witness  no  other — 
where  every  sermon  and  prayer  and  form,  where  all 


204  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

private  conversation  and  ministerial  services  proceed 
from,  or  are  directed  by,  the  one  sect — and,  is  it  possible 
that  youth,  at  the  most  susceptible  period  of  their  lives, 
should  not  be  operated  on  by  such  daily  influences, 
during  a  period  of  two,  four  or  six  years  ?  How  long 
will  the  people  be  gulled  by  such  barefaced  impudence 
— by  such  unreasonable  and  monstrous  pretensions? 

I  do  not  object  to  any  sect's  being  allowed  the  privi- 
lege of  erecting  and  maintaining,  at  their  own  expense, 
as  many  schools,  colleges  and  theological  seminaries  as 
they  please.  But,  then,  their  sectarian  views  should  be 
openly  and  distinctly  avowed.  Their  purpose  should  be 
specified  in  their  charters:  and  the  legislature  should 
protect  the  people  from  imposition  by  the  very  act 
which  invests  them  with  corporate  powers.  Hitherto, 
almost  every  legislature  has  pursued  an  opposite  policy, 
and  has  aided  the  work  of  deception,  by  enacting  that, 
in  the  said  sectarian  institution,  youth  of  all  sects  should 
be  entitled  to  equal  privileges.  Thus  the  sectarian 
manufactory  goes  into  operation  under  the  smiles,  pa- 
tronage and  recommendation  of  the  people's  representa- 
tives. Its  friends  puff  it  off,  and  laud  it  as  the  people's 
school,  and  plead  their  liberal  charter  as  the  talisman 
that  is  to  guard  the  people  against  every  insidious  at^ 
tempt  at  proselytism ;  and  urge  the  people  to  contribute 
their  money  to  build  up  their  promising  and  most  catho- 
lic seminary.  The  bait  is  seized — the  people  are  cheated 
— and  the  sect  has  its  college.  Students  of  all  denomi- 
nations frequent  it.  And  no  man  of  sense  and  reflection 
can  doubt  the  consequences. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  205 

There  are  sects  in  our  countr}'  wlio  have  succeeded  in 
this  way,  who  never  permit  their  own  children  to  attend 
any  schools  but  such  as  they  exclusively  control,  who  pro- 
fess the  greatest  liberality  to  the  public  on  all  occasions, 
and  who  boast  among  themselves  of  the  converts  which 
they  have  made  from  their  dissenting  pupils.  I  could 
specify  names  and  places,  and  adduce  proof  positive  of 
all  the  facts  asserted,  were  it  necessar3\  Let  the  people 
see  to  it,  or  the  remedy  will  soon  be  beyond  their  reach. 

A  p?</>Z/c  college — that  is,  a  literary  and  scientific  col- 
lege designed  for  the  public  generally — ought  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  all  religious  sectarian  bias,  or  tendency,  or 
influence.  And  it  ought,  when  practicable,  to  be  situated 
in  a  town  or  city  where  the  several  sects,  composing  the 
body  of  the  people,  have  their  own  places  of  public 
worship,  to  which  their  sons  may  have  free  access ;  and 
where  the  public  eye  may  be  constantly  fixed  on  the 
conduct  of  the  Trustees  and  Faculty.  And  where  every 
artful  attempt  at  proselytism  would  be  instantly  detected 
and  exposed.  Some  men  are  so  constituted  that  they 
cannot  help  being  partisans  and  bigots.  Such  men  are 
not  fit  to  be  the  instructors  of  j^outh,  except  where  it  is 
intended  that  the  dogmas  of  a  sect  shall  be  inculcated. 

Science  and  philosophy  ought  to  know  no  party  in 
Church  or  State.  They  are  degraded  by  every  such 
connexion.  Christianity,  indeed,  if  rightly  interpreted, 
breathes  a  pure  angelic  charity,  and  is  as  much  a 
stranger  to  the  strife,  and  intrigue,  and  rancour,  and 
intolerance,  and  pharisaism  of  party,  as  science  and 
philosophy  can  be.     But  so  long  as  men  are  not  content 


206  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

to  be  honest  Christians,  but  will  be  zealous  Presbyte- 
rians, Episcopalians,  Methodists,  Baptists,  Quakers  or 
Romanists,  we  must  so  organize  our  jmhlic  seminaries 
of  learning,  as  that  all  may  intrust  their  sons  to  them 
without  fear  of  danger  to  their  religious  faith. 

It  has  been  objected  to  Nashville,  as  the  site  of  a 
University  for  the  purposes  of  general  education :  — 
1.  That  it  is  the  centre  of  too  much  dissipation,  ex- 
travagance and  vice.  That  a  residence  here  might 
endanger  the  morals  and  virtue  of  youth,  and  lead 
them  to  ruinous  indulgence  and  prodigality.  This  is  a 
specious  objection  —  but  it  is  merely  specious.  Small 
towns  and  villages  are  generally  more  objectionable,  in 
these  respects,  than  cities  containing  from  five  to  fifty 
thousand  inhabitants.  Experience  has  fully  proved  in 
Europe,  and  in  the  older  States  of  this  Union,  that  large 
towns  or  cities  are  greatly  preferable  to  small  ones  for 
such  institutions.  All  the  capitals  and  most  of  the 
second-rate  cities  of  Europe  have  their  universities. 
And  wherever  they  have  been  established  in  small 
towns,  the  students  are  proverbially  more  riotous  and 
ungovernable  in  their  conduct,  more  boorish  and  savage 
in  their  manners,  and  more  dissolute  and  licentious  in 
their  habits. 

A  large  town,  moreover,  always  affords  greater  advan- 
tages and  facilities  for  the  acquisition  of  liberal  know- 
ledge than  a  small  village.  It  has,  comparatively,  more 
literary  and  scientific  men — more  individuals  skilled  in 
various  languages — more  eminent  professional  characters 
— larger  libraries — more  ample  cabinets  and  collections 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  207 

of  natural  curiosities  and  specimens  of  the  arts — a  more 
enliglitened  and  refined  society  to  polish  and  restrain 
youth  from  vulgar  practices  and  indulgences — a  greater 
variety  of  churches  and  other  religious  institutions  to 
enlarge  the  mind  and  prevent  the  growth  of  bigotry  and 
sectarism — and,  in  general,  a  more  powerful  and  salutary 
moral  influence  is  exerted  and  felt  than  in  a  small  pro- 
vincial town  or  countrj-  village.  The  empire  of  public 
opinion  is  recognized  and  respected.  A  vigilant  and  ener- 
getic police  is  ever  at  hand  also  to  check  the  sallies  and 
control  the  renowninfj  propensities  of  the  thoughtless,  the 
turbulent,  the  idle,  the  reckless  and  the  self-sufficient. 

These  and  similar  privileges  an  enlightened  judicious 
parent  will  not  fail  to  appreciate.  And  in  all  these 
respects,  Nashville  will  be  every  year  improving.  It 
has  greatly  improved  within  the  last  eight  or  ten  years, 
as  every  citizen,  who  has  resided  here  long  enough  to 
judge,  will  testify.  I  hiow  that,  in  Nashville,  unpro- 
pitious  as  have  been  certain  local  and  temporary  circum- 
stances, youth  may  be  trained  as  safely  and  governed 
as  thoroughly  as  in  any  town  beyond  the  mountains. 
Youth  often  enter  college  spoiled :  and  the  Faculty  can- 
not cure  or  reform  them.  But,  in  no  instance  yet,  has 
a  \'irtuous,  orderly,  well-behaved  youth  been  made  worse 
at  our  institution.  If  they  come  to  the  University,  w4th 
inveterate  habits  of  idleness,  vice  or  insubordination, 
nothing  more  can  be  expected  of  its  government  than 
that  it  speedily  get  rid  of  them.  And  this  it  has 
seldom — without  fear,  partiality  or  favour — fjiiled  to 
accomplish.     The  good  have  not  been  injured ;  nor  are 


208  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

they  a  whit  more  obnoxious  to  evil  influences  here  than 
in  an}^  town  in  Connecticut  or  New  York.  The  ickhed, 
if  they  cannot  be  recLainiecl,  are,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
presently  sent  home  to  their  parents  and  friends. 

The  good  people  of  the  Southern  States  generally, 
labour  under  a  singular  delusion  in  regard  to  the  bene- 
fits which  their  sons  are  supposed  to  enjoy  at  Eastern 
seminaries.  They  have  heard  much  of  the  steads- 
habits,  excellent  morals,  and  religious  character  of  the 
East;  and  they  presume  that  their  sons,  while  there, 
will  be  precluded  from  all  exposure  to  vicious  tempta- 
tion. This  is  a  most  egregious  mistake.  The  Southern 
youth,  at  Eastern  colleges,  are  more  exposed  to  all  man- 
ner of  expensive  and  ruinous  dissipation  than  they 
would  be  at  home.  They  invariably  associate  toge- 
ther— are  always  presumed  to  have  plenty  of  monej' — 
are  solicited  from  every  quarter  to  spend  it  freely — are 
trusted  without  hesitation  to  any  amount  by  those  most 
interested  in  misleading  and  in  fleecing  them  —  are 
courted  and  flattered,  and  made  to  believe  that  they 
are  superior  to  the  natives,  whose  manners,  customs  and 
maxims  they  affect  to  despise — are  actuated  and  bound 
to  each  other  by  the  lofty  and  fastidious  spirit  of  pro- 
vincial clanship,  and  manifest,  to  a  most  ludicrous  ex- 
tent, all  the  pride  and  arrogance  of  aristocratic  exclu- 
siveness.  Residing  among  strangers  with  whom  they 
are  never  domesticated,  and  whose  peculiarities  they  are 
accustomed  to  ridicule — far  removed  from  the  observa- 
tion and  controlling  influence  of  that  society  to  whose 
tribunal  alone  they  feel  ultimately  amenable — they  as- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  209 

sume  the  port  and  bearing  of  independent  lordlings  and 
honourable  reguhators  of  both  town  and  college — and, 
provided  they  manage  to  escape  imprisonment  and  ex- 
pulsion, they  care  not  a  rush  about  minor  considerations 
or  temporary  consequences.  In  due  time,  after  squan- 
dering, in  this  liopeful  career,  some  two  or  three  thou- 
sand dollars  each  per  annum,  they  usually  succeed  in 
obtaining — what  would  seem  to  have  been  the  sole 
object  of  their  Jiterary  ambition — a  Bachelor's  diploma, 
certifying  to  the  world  that  they  are  accomplished  in  all 
the  liberal  arts  and  sciences,  and  "adorned  with  every 
virtue  under  heaven."  With  this  precious  trophy  of 
their  academic  achievements,  they  return  home  to 
gladden  the  hearts  of  doting  parents,  and  to  receive 
the  gratulations  of  kindred  and  friends — but  with  heads 
as  empty  as  their  purses — and  oftentimes  with  broken 
constitutions  and  dissolute  habits  which  totally  unfit 
them  for  any  useful  vocation  or  honourable  profession. 

This  is  no  exaggerated  representation.  That  there 
are  exceptions,  is  readily  granted.  But,  like  the  great 
prizes  in  a  lottery,  they  are  so  few  in  comparison  with  the 
blanks,  that  nice  calculators,  who  are  skilled  in  the  doc- 
trine of  chances,  avouM  not  choose  to  hazard  much  upon 
the  issue  in  either  case.  On  the  contrary,  at  Nashville, 
no  youth  from  any  section  of  the  slave-holding  States, 
will  ever  dream  that  he  is  superior  to  the  common  law 
of  public  sentiment — that  he  is  above  the  reach  of  dis- 
grace from  the  repulsive  and  frowning  aspect  of  the 
society  in  which  he  lives — or  that  his  present  comfort 
and  future  respectability  will  not  depend  on  the  opinion 

VOL.  I.  14 


210  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

which  the  good,  the  wise,  the  inteUigent  and  the  influ- 
ential may  form  of  his  talents,  industry,  morals'  and 
gentlemanly  deportment  while  a  college  student.  In 
the  metropolis  of  Tennessee,  every  son  of  Tennessee 
will  look  up  with  deference  to  the  better  class  of  citi- 
zens as  models  for  imitation;  while  at  an  Eastern  vil- 
lage he  might  look  doicn  with  contempt  upon  the  whole 
population.  And  the  sneer  of  a  companion  at  the 
Ycml-ees  is,  at  any  time,  sufficient  to  efface  from  his 
mind  any  salutarj'  impression  from  the  rebukes  of  au- 
thority or  the  counsels  of  wisdom. 

2.  Nashville  has  been  objected  to  on  the  score  of  ex- 
pense— and  with  as  little  reason  as  every  other.  The 
truth  is,  that  the  cost  of  an  education  here  is  less  by 
fifty  and  even  a  hundred  per  cent. — all  advantages  con- 
sidered— than  at  any  respectable  Northern  or  Southern 
college  whatever.  The  price  of  board  is  one  dollar  and 
seventy-five  cents  per  week,  and  the  other  charges  are 
not  so  high  as  at  many  of  our  female  and  classical 
schools.  One  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  defra}-  the 
entire  college  bills  for  all  purposes  (including  board) 
during  the  academic  year  of  forty-two  Aveeks.  Contin- 
gent expenses  of  every  kind  must  be  regulated,  of  course, 
by  parental  discretion.  The  most  rigid  economy  is  re- 
commended and  encouraged,  and,  as  far  as  practicable, 
enforced.  It  is  obvious  that  all  articles  imported  from 
abroad  must  be  cheaper  in  a  commercial  emporium  than 
at  an}-  remote  town  in  the  country.  Candidates  for  the 
gospel  ministry  are,  without  distinction  of  sect  or  name, 
admitted  to  all  the  privileges  of  the  university  at  half 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  211 

the  ordinary  charges.  Poor  young  men,  who  desire  to 
help  themselves,  either  by  teaching  in  the  public  schools 
or  in  private  families,  or  by  labouring  on  the  college- 
farm  or  in  the  workshops  of  our  mechanics,  may  earn 
more  here  than  at  any  "  Manual  Labour"  establishment 
in  the  country.  Every  possible  facility  is  given  to  this 
species  of  commendable  but  voluntary  enterprise  :  and 
no  manner  of  disgrace  attaches  to  the  individuals  who 
thus  manfully  strive  to  educate  themselves.  Every  pro- 
duct of  the  garden,  the  field  and  the  workshop  com- 
mands a  ready  and  profitable  market.  If  it  be  possible 
for  a  youth  to  icork  his  way  through  college  in  any  part 
of  the  world,  he  can  do  it  here  with  equal  certainty  and 
under  peculiar  advantages.  In  salubrity  also,  Nashville 
is  unrivalled :  and  consequently,  students  are  rarely  sul> 
jected  to  any  extra  expense  for  physicians  or  nurses  on 
account  of  ill-health.* 

I  have  chosen  to  dilate  on  these  matters,  trivial  as 
some  of  them  may  appear,  because  they  have  been 
grossly,  if  not  wilfully  magnified  and  misrepresented; 
and  to  show  that  there  is  no  reasonable  objection  to 
Nashville  as  a  favoured  and  popular  site  for  a  great  and 


*  Of  the  salubrity  of  Nashville — having  resided  here  eight  years 
(I  write  this  note  in  November,  1832) — I  may  be  allowed  to  speak 
with  reasonable  assurance.  If  there  be  a  healthier  place  on  the  globe 
than  Nashville,  I  have  yet  to  learn  where  it  may  be  found.  The 
youth  of  Canada  or  Vermont  would  be  as  safe  here  as  at  home.  No 
acclimating  process  is  necessary  to  adapt  any  constitution  to  our 
seasons.  Our  town  is  composed  of  citizens  from  every  part  of  Chris- 
tendom. We  have  had  students  at  the  University  from  New  York. 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky  and  most 
of  the  Southern  States  :  and  all  have  enjoyed  uniform  good  health. 


212  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

flourishing  university.  And  also,  to  remind  its  real 
friends,  that  the  difficulties  hitherto  encountered  and 
still  to  be  encountered,  so  far  from  discouraging  future 
efforts  to  advance  the  institution,  ought  rather  to  stimu- 
late to  greater,  and  more  efficient,  and  more  determined 
exertions  and  sacrifices  to  insure  its  ultimate  and  com- 
plete success. 

Lord  Bacon  somewhere  observes,  that  heroic  desires 
contribute  greatly  to  health.  If  a  man  would  succeed, 
let  him  aim  at  great  things ;  and,  by  the  blessing  of  God, 
he  will  accomplish  great  things. 

Little  or  nothing  has  been  achieved  in  this  country, 
because  only  a  little  has  been  attempted.  None  of  our 
citizens  have  aspired  to  great  things,  and  therefore  even 
their  humble  efforts  have  proved  abortive.  If  we  Avould 
succeed  in  building  up  a  seminary  deserving  the  name 
of  a  University,  we  must,  at  the  outset,  form  a  just  con- 
ception of  the  immense  magnitude  and  importance  of 
the  enterprise ;  and  then  set  about  the  work  with  cool 
deliberate  purpose  and  systematic  skill.  If  the  State 
will  not  furnish  the  means  or  suffer  us  to  use  the  ample 
means  originally  provided  by  Congress,  individual  muni- 
ficence must  be  relied  on,  as  it  has  been  in  many  other 
places  :  and  we  must  persevere,  as  importunate  beggars, 
until  the  public  yield  a  due  supply  of  their  treasures  to 
effect  the  object — even  though  it  be  obtained  by  the 
dollar  from  house  to  house.  This  is  the  way  that  all 
our  benevolent  associations  procure  their  tens  of  thou- 
sands annually  to  carry  on  their  mighty  plans  of  uni- 
versal   improvement.       In    this    way    too,    the    various 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  213 

religious  sects  are  erecting  and  endowing  colleges  in 
every  part  of  our  country.  Let  a  religious  body  resolve 
to-day  to  establish  a  college  anywhere ;  and,  in  a  few 
months,  jou  shall  hear  that  they  have  some  fifty  or  a 
hundre.d  thousand  dollars  to  commence  with.  And  }et 
this  is  tlie  land  which  proudly  boasts  of  religious  liberty 
and  equal  rights,  and  which  eschews  all  bigotry,  intole- 
rance and  persecution.  Cannot  liberal  and  enlightened 
men  of  all  sects  and  parties  unite  for  the  purpose  of 
rearing  one  institution  which  shall  never  be  under  the 
control  of  any  sect  or  party  ? 

Such  is  the  acknowledged  character  —  such  are  the 
pretensions  and  claims  of  our  University.  It  is  not 
sectarian;  and  hence  the  ixirtisans  of  all  sects  stand 
alcof  from  it.  They  are  not  satisfied  with  neutrality, 
nor  with  equality  of  influence  and  privilege.  The}' 
must  have  all  or  nothing.  Such  men  too,  often  suc- 
ceed, by  obstinate  hostility  and  artful  misrepresentation, 
in  gaining,  at  length,  the  entire  and  absolute  mastery  of 
the  very  institution  which  had  been  the  object  of  their 
unrelenting  malignant  persecution.  Will  the  guardians 
of  the  people's  rights  and  liberties  consent  to  witness  so 
mortifying  a  result  in  the  present  instance  ?  Will  they, 
by  neglect  or  covetousness,  permit  this  truly  catholic 
establishment,  which  of  right  belongs  to  the  people — to 
all  the  people  without  distinction  of  sect  or  name — to 
become  the  engine  of  any  party  whatever  ? 

Generous  and  high-minded  men  are  never  suspicious  : 
and,  unfortunately,  they  seldom  take  that  prominent 
and  active  part  in  public  afftiirs  to  which  tlieir  superior 


214  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

talents  and  virtues  justly  entitle  them.  The}^  suffer 
busy,  meddling,  intriguing,  selfish  spirits  to  operate-upon 
the  popular  mind,  and  to  control  the  most  important  en- 
terprises and  institutions  in  Church  and  State,  agreeably 
to  their  own  sinister  and  partial  views.  The  gr^at,  the 
wise,  the  good  are  generally  overlooked,  because  they 
have  too  much  modesty  and  self-respect  to  obtrude 
themselves  upon  the  public  notice  or  to  solicit  public 
confidence.  Hence  it  is  that  such  men  often  pass  their 
days  in  comparative  obscurity :  and  it  is  only  in  seasons 
of  extraordinary  emergency  or  extreme  peril  that  they 
are  summoned,  by  the  spontaneous  voice  of  the  commu- 
nity, to  assume  the  station  and  to  exert  the  influence 
for  which  none  others  are  then  deemed  equal.  They  do 
wisely,  perhaps,  in  keeping  aloof  from  the  political 
arena — from  all  the  petty  strifes  and  virulent  controver- 
sies of  the  ins  and  the  aids — where  success  would  be  no 
adequate  reward  for  any  moral  or  even  personal  sacrifice 
— ^when  a  Clodius  or  a  Wilkes  w^ould  be  more  likely  to 
win  the  day  than  a  Phocion  or  a  Hampden — and  while 
a  Cincinnatus  or  an  Aristides  might  indulge  their  rural 
or  philosophical  propensities  at  home  to  their  heart's 
content,  without  fear  of  being  forced  into  notoriety  by 
the  sovereign  people.  But  why  should  thej^  desert  or 
renounce  the  cause  of  science,  of  education,  of  morals, 
of  human  happiness?  May  they  not,  without  self- 
reproach — nay,  Avith  conscious  integrity  and  with  the 
noblest  devotion  to  the  public  weal  —  stand  forth  the 
friends  and  advocates  of  learning?  Here  is  a  sphere 
fitted  for  their  unostentatious  and  benevolent  exertions. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  215 

Our  schools  and  colleges  demand  their  aid.  Have  they 
fortune,  have  they  leisure,  have  they  patriotism,  have 
they  superior  intelligence,  talent,  philanthropy  —  and 
will  they,  can  they,  refuse  to  cherish  and  to  promote 
the  infant  seminaries  of  j^outhful  instruction  which  are 
struggling  for  existence  under  their  eyes  and  at  their 
very  doors  —  to  which  their  seasonable  countenance 
and  patronage  would  assure  complete  and  permanent 
prosperity- — and  which,  by  their  indifference  and  inac- 
tion, may  be  checked  and  impeded — and,  perhaps,  be 
blasted  forever  ? 

The  crisis  has  now  been  reached,  which,  it  may  be 
presumed,  will  frighten  from  our  ranks  all  the  timid, 
irresolute  and  faint-hearted ;  but  which  will  nerve  with 
new  vigour  and  energy  every  bold,  intrepid,  magnani- 
mous spirit,  and  put  to  a  decisive  test  the  moral  stamina 
and  genuine  character  of  every  man  who  pretends  attach- 
ment and  devotion  to  the  noblest  cause  which  can  claim 
his  every  talent  and  the  most  invincible  perseverance. 
Should  this  trying  crisis  be  successfully  passed,  the 
victory  is  sure — the  University  will  rise  and  triumph, 
and  diffuse  joy  and  blessings  to  thousands  of  the  present, 
and  to  millions  of  future  generations.* 

*  That  the  purport  of  the  foregoing  discourse  may  not  be  misap- 
prehended, it  is  proper  to  apprise  the  reader,  that,  simply  as  a  college 
for  undergraduates,  the  University  of  Nashville  is  not  inferior  to  other 
American  colleges.  As  thorough  and  extensive  an  education  may  be 
acquired  here  as  at  any  similar  institution  whatever.  The  qualifica- 
tions for  admission  into  the  several  classes  and  for  graduation  are 
nowhere  exceeded.  The  chemical  laboratory,  the  apparatus  for  every 
branch  of  experimental  science,  and  the  museum  of  natural  history  are 


216  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

[The  candidates,  having  been  admitted  to  their  de- 
grees, were  addressed  as  follows.] 

1.  To  you.  Young  Gentlemen,  who  have  just  received 
the  first  public  honours  of  this  institution,  I  have  but  a 
word  to  say.  It  has  been  my  constant  study  and  aim, 
in  the  freedom  of  our  colloquial  intercourse  in  the  lecture 
room,  to  imbue  your  minds  with  correct  sentiments  on 
most  moral  and  practical  topics.  —  And  especialty  to 
teach  you  how  to  investigate  and  reason,  that  you  may 
discover  truth,  and,  in  all  cases,  judge  for  jourselves ; 
and  never  yield  a  blind  or  implicit  faith  to  the  dogmata 
of  any  sage,  dead  or  living.  You  have  commenced  a 
course  of  study  which  is  to  terminate  but  with  your 
lives.  Your  education,  so  far  from  being  comjDleted,  is 
only  begun.  Hereafter,  you  must  be  your  own  instruc- 
tors ;  as  all  must  be  who  hope  to  attain  intellectual  emi- 
nence. You  have  mastered  a  few  elementary  principles, 
which  will  enable  you,  by  persevering  industry,  to  ad- 
vance slowly  it  may  be,  but  surely,  up  the  rugged  hill- 
second  to  none  in  the  Eastern  States.  The  mineralogical  cabinet 
especially — the  specimens  of  which  Prof.  Troost  (a  pupil  of  the  cele- 
brated Hiiuy)  has  been  collecting  from  every  part  of  the  world  during 
twenty  years  past — would  be  creditable  to  any  European  unirersity. 
The  college  library  contains  two  thousand  volumes  :  and  other  libra- 
ries, to  which  the  Faculty  and  students  have  access,  contain  seven  or 
eight  thousand  more.  Still,  provision  has  been  made  only  for  under- 
graduates, and  for  these  only  in  limited  numbers.  "We  need  funds  for 
the  permanent  support  of  twenty  professors,  edifices  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  five  hundred  students,  a  library  of  fifty  thousand  volumes,  a 
botanical  garden,  astronomical  observatory,  &c. — besides  the  profes- 
sional and  other  departments  which  ought  to  belong  to  a  university, 
worthy  of  the  resources,  the  population  and  the  republican  dignity  of 
Tennessee. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  217 

side  of  science,  till,  at  length,  you  gain  honourable 
admittance  within  the  portals  of  the  fair  temple  itself. 
Never  forget  that  you  are  students;  and  that  much  may 
be  learned  every  day,  by  a  skilful  and  orderly  arrange- 
ment of  your  various  pursuits,  from  men  and  books,  and 
from  the  grand  volume  of  nature  which  is  everywhere 
spread  open  to  your  view  and  admiration. 

2.  In  the  next  place,  study  to  devote  all  your  attain- 
ments and  faculties  to  the  promotion  of  the  best  interests 
of  society,  of  your  country,  and  of  mankind.  This  must 
be  done  frequently  by  a  difficult,  tedious,  and  discou- 
raging process.  If  you  would  accomplish  great  good  in 
your  day,  you  must  consent  to  labour  patiently,  and  to 
attend  to  a  multiplicity  of  apparently  trivial  concerns. 
Society  is  often  most  benefited  by  men  who  can  enter 
into  minute  details — who  can  devise,  encourage  and  aid 
judicious  schemes  to  enlighten  the  minds,  and  to  melio- 
rate the  condition  and  morals  of  those  around  them. 
Therefore,  never  imagine  any  object,  however  humble, 
beneath  you,  if  calculated  to  be  useful  to  ever  so  small 
a  portion  of  your  fellow-citizens.  Franklin,  when,  at  the 
height  of  his  fame,  never  lost  sight  of  the  poor  mechanic, 
nor  ceased  to  suggest  plans  for  his  improvement.  It  will 
be  expected  of  you,  as  having  enjoyed  superior  means  of 
education,  to  be  yourselves  the  friends  of  education,  in 
every  degree  and  to  the  greatest  practicable  extent. 
Should  you  ever  occupy  seats  in  the  legislative  halls 
of  your  country,  remember  that  the  cause  of  education 
is  paramount  to  all  others;  and  that  if  this  be  tho- 
roughly provided  for,  it  will  nearly  supersede  the  neces- 


218  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

sity  of  all  other  legislation.  If  you  shall  ever  be  •  ap- 
pointed trustees  of  a  great  literary  institution — an  office 
which  ought  to  be  deemed  more  dignified,  as  it  is  vastly 
more  important,  than  am-  which  this  commonwealth  can 
confer — promote  its  interests  with  more  zeal  and  fidelity 
than  3'ou  would  jour  own ;  and  guard  its  reputation  with 
the  same  sensitive  jealousy  that  you  would  protect  the 
vestal  honour  of  a  sister. 

3.  Be  temperate  :  and  seek  to  promote  temperance 
among  all  over  whom  you  may  have  influence.  Intem- 
perance, next  to  ignorance,  is  acknowledged  to  be  the 
greatest  evil  which  afflicts  our  country.  It  is  the  direct 
cause  of  most  of  the  crime,  disease,  pauperism  and 
wretchedness  which  prevail  among  us.  The  only  effec- 
tual remedy  for  it  has,  at  length,  been  discovered.  It 
is  total  and  universal  abstinence  from  spirituous  liquors. 
The  moderate  and  temperate  use  of  ardent  spirits  has 
been,  for  years  past,  the  occasion  of  all  the  intemperance 
in  our  land.  The  man  who  drinks  temperately  has  al- 
ready entered  the  broad  road  to  ruin :  besides,  he  may, 
by  his  soher  example,  make  all  his  sons  drunkards ;  and 
thus  become  a  curse  to  societj'  and  to  his  own  posterity. 
The  time  has  arrived,  when,  in  some  parts  of  our  coun- 
try, no  persons  who  have  any  regard  either  to  conscience 
or  public  opinion,  dare  engage  in  the  business  of  manu- 
facturing, importing  or  vending  distilled  liquors  in  any 
form.  And,  I  doubt  not,  that,  before  many  years  elapse, 
such  will  be  the  doctrine  and  practice  throughout  this 
and  all  other  Christian  lands.  Temperance  Societies 
have    already  achieved    a  more    glorious    and    salutary 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  219 

moral  revolution,  Avitliin  the  last  five  3'ears,  than  any 
human  institution  or  agency  had  ever  before  effected  for 
the  welfare  of  mankind  in  half  a  century. 

4.  Endeavour,  by  honest  industry  in  some  useful  call- 
ing or  profession,  to  render  yourselves  independent.  Vir- 
tue depends,  much  more  than  is  generally  supposed,  upon 
pecuniar3'  independence.  In  our  happy  land,  every 
healthy  man  may  become  thus  independent  in  his  cir- 
cumstances, if  he  please.  I  do  not  mean  that  every 
man  must  acquire  what  is  called  an  independent  for- 
tune. He  is  truly  independent,  who  habitually  lives 
within  his  income,  whatever  that  may  be,  or  however 
honestly  procured  or  earned.  In  this  sense,  the  hum- 
blest labourer  may  be  independent.  Franklin,  again,  is 
high  authority;  and  his  own  j^ractice  furnishes  the  best 
possible  illustration  of  his  excellent  maxims.  "  If  a 
man  (said  he)  w^ould  preserve  both  integrity  and  inde- 
pendence free  from  temptation,  let  him  keep  out  of 
debt."  The  Proverbs  of  Solomon  are  full  of  practical 
wisdom  on  this  topic,  and  deserve  the  serious  stud}'  of 
every  person  just  entering  ujDon  the  theatre  of  public 
life.  The  tyranny  of  fashion  must  be  manfully  resisted : 
and  all  its  capricious  and  oppressive  mandates  and  re- 
quirements must  be  disregarded  from  the  outset,  by  the 
young  man  who  would  rise,  by  his  own  efforts,  to  meri- 
torious distinction  in  the  world.  Lord  Thurlow,  himself 
an  illustrious  example  of  his  own  rule,  used  to  say,  that 
the  surest  cause  of  success  to  a  Barrister  was  "parts  and 
poverty."  And  I  will  add,  that,  with  parts  and  poverty, 
persevering  application,  consistent  frugality,  temperance 


220  EDUCATIOI^'AL    DISCOURSES. 

and  integrity, — honour  and  eminence  may  be  attained 
in  any  profession  by  the  humblest  individuaL 

5.  Maintain  a  scrupulous  regard  to  truth — on  all  oc- 
casions— in  small  things  as  well  as  in  great — in  your 
sprightliest  conversations,  no  less  than  in  your  graver 
and  more  deliberate  statements  and  asseverations.  Habit 
is  everything :  and  truth  is  too  sacred  ever  to  be  trifled 
with.  Never  dispute  merely  for  the  sake  of  victory; 
but  honestly  search  after  truth  with  the  calm  docility 
of  a  pupil,  not  with  the  pride  and  arrogance  of  the  de- 
termined champion. 

6.  Discountenance  and  abstain  from  the  practice  of 
duelling.  And  never  carry  about  your  persons  deadly 
weapons  of  any  sort,  lest,  in  some  moment  of  angry  ex- 
citement, 3'ou  be  tempted  to  use  them  to  the  fatal  injury 
of  others  and  to  the  destruction  of  your  own  peace  and 
happiness. 

7.  Avoid  all  games  of  chance  as  3^ou  would  pestilence 
and  death. 

8.  Guard  against  infidel  sentiments.  They  will  be 
found  as  cheerless,  as  they  have  been  proved  to  be  un- 
philosophical  and  noxious. 

9.  Cultivate  a  spirit  of  liberality,  kindness  and  charity 
towards  all  men,  of  whatever  nation,  creed,  sect  or 
part}^  Never  fancy  yourselves  infallible  in  regard  to 
those  profound  mysteries  in  speculative  religion  and 
philosophy  which  have  hitherto  baffled  the  wisdom  of 
the  strongest  intellects,  and  which  have  converted  the 
weak  and  obstinate  into  fanatics,  bigots  and  persecutors. 
While  you  assert,  with  amiable  firmness,  what  you  be- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  221 

lieve  on  satisfactory  evidence,  and  while  3'ou  adhere  to 
such  forms  and  ceremonies  as  you  deliberately  prefer — 
concede  to  all  other  men  the  same  right,  and  allow  them 
to  be  as  honest  as  yourselves.  That  pretending  Chris- 
tian, who  denounces  any  other  or  all  other  Christian 
sects  except  his  own,  who  condemns  their  system,  as- 
perses their  motives  and  questions  their  integrity,  gives 
ample  evidence  of  his  own  narrow  sectarian  intolerance, 
and  hostility  to  the  plainest  principles  of  the  gospel 
which  he  professes.  The  differences  which  obtain 
among  the  various  Christian  denominations  are,  in 
general,  of  no  great  magnitude  or  importance;  and 
ought  never  to  be  made  the  ground  of  ridicule  or  abuse, 
much  less  of  hatred  and  invidious  or  malicious  calumny 
and  persecution.  Stand  firm  to  the  church  of  your  elec- 
tion, or  in  which  3-ou  have  been  educated ;  but  never 
suffer  one  unkindly  sentiment  towards  other  churches  to 
enter  your  bosoms.  I  have  found  excellent,  enlightened, 
and  truly  Christian  individuals  in  every  sect  with  which 
I  am  acquainted — and  my  personal  acquaintance  extends 
to  more  than  twenty  different  sects,  whose  public  worship 
I  have  witnessed  and  all  whose  peculiar  modes  I  have 
carefully  noted — and  I  have  also  met  with  knaves  and 
hypocrites  in  my  own  as  well  as  in  some  other  churches. 
You  are  not  to  judge  of  Christianity  from  the  un- 
worthy conduct  of  its  professors.  You  have  a  surer 
guide — the  constitution — the  charter — the  entire  system 
of  our  holy  religion — as  it  descended  pure  and  unadulte- 
rated from  the  Father  of  lights  and  the  Fountain  of 
truth   and  righteousness.      Let  this  sacred  book  —  the 


222  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

volume  of  inspiration — the  Bible — be  the  companion  of 
jour  whole  earthly  pilgrimage,  and  the  object  of 'your 
daily  and  unprejudiced  study.  How  beautiful  is  that 
religion  which  pervades  all  the  precepts  and  lessons  and 
examjDle  and  conduct  of  its  divine  Author  ?  And  how 
different  from  that  which  is  but  too  often  inculcated  by- 
selfish,  ignorant,  deceiving,  or  self-deceived,  pharisaical, 
ambitious  ecclesiastics  or  sj^iritual  demagogues  of  every 
name?  The  gospel  breathes  peace  and  good-will,  for- 
bearance, long-suffering,  patience,  forgiveness,  mercy, 
and  love  towards  all  men ;  and  can  therefore  never  be 
made  to  sanction  angry  dissensions,  and  bitter  contro- 
versies, and  inquisitorial  cruelties,  and  malignant  re- 
venge, and  secret  jealousies,  and  open  violence,  and 
uncharitable  constructions,  and  exclusive  sectarian  pre- 
tensions. The  gospel  enjoins  and  inspires  angelic  purity 
of  heart  and  motive  and  life  and  conversation  :  and  can 
never  countenance  licentiousness  or  moral  obliquity  in 
any  form  or  degree.  And  that  individual  whose  conduct 
does  not  accord  with  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  gospel, 
in  all  its  leading  features,  is  not  a  genuine  Christian, 
however  orthodox  may  be  his  creed,  or  however  valiantly 
he  may  contend  for  the  true  faith. 

I  caution  you,  therefore,  to  avoid  the  common  error 
of  ingenious  and  intelligent  youth,  and  of  many  distin- 
guished professional  and  scientific  men  of  the  ripest 
years,  who  pronounce  hastily  and  unfavourably  of  the 
Christian  religion ;  because  so  many  of  its  advocates 
have  been  a  disgrace  to  it,  as  well  as  to  reason  and 
humanitv ;    and    because    so    manv   abominations    have 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  223 

been  perpetrated  in  its  name,  and  apparently  under  its 
authority.  Go  to  the  record,  and  examine  for  yourselves 
what  this  religion  is.  and  what  its  professors  ought  to 
be.  And  remember  that  you  have  an  interest  in  the 
result,  deep  and  everlasting  as  the  foundations  of  eter- 
nity. This  religion,  if  true,  speaks  the  same  language, 
imposes  the  same  duties,  prohibits  the  same  indulgences, 
holds  out  the  same  promises,  rewards,  threatenings  and 
penalties  to  all  men,  without  distinction,  to  whom  it 
ever  has  been,  is  now,  or  ever  will  be  promulgated.  Its 
laws  are  binding  equally  on  clergymen  and  lajinen,  on 
believers  and  unbelievers,  on  rich  and  poor,  learned  and 
unlearned — on  you  and  me — and  no  more  on  me  than 
on  you.  Therefore,  whatever  the  gospel  commands  or 
requires  must  be  obeyed  and  fulfilled,  at  the  peril  of  all 
the  misery  and  despair  which  it  threatens.  It  promises 
to  the  believing  and  obedient  all  the  peace  and  happi- 
ness which  man  is  capable  of  realizing  in  this  world, 
together  with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory  in  the 
Paradise  of  God,  when  this  fleeting  scene  shall  have 
passed  away  forever. 

You  will  not  have  travelled  far  on  the  journe}'  of  life, 
before  you  will  perceive  the  want  of  heavenly  consola- 
tion and  support.  The  current  of  this  world's  aflfairs  is 
seldom  smooth  and  unruffled.  Calamity  arrives  when 
least  expected ;  and  in  a  form  and  from  a  source  never 
anticipated.  Friendship  fails  or  is  treacherous  precisely 
when  most  relied  on  or  when  most  needed.  Popular 
favour  is  as  transient  and  variable  as  the  passing  breeze. 
Wealth  vanishes  when  most  idolized.     Every  endearing 


224  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

tie,  every  human  support,  every  earthly  good,  may  be 
sundered  or  torn  away.  Even  the  treasures  of  htei'ature 
and  science,  to  the  acquisition  of  which  years  of  ardent 
and  painful  labour  have  been  devoted,  may,  at  length, 
appear  almost  valueless  and  insipid- — as  they  did  to 
Ealeigh,  Grotius,  Pascal,  Selden,  Locke,  Newton  — 
at  the  approach  of  death,  or  in  comparison  with  the 
momentous  truths  and  cheering  promises  of  the  Sa- 
cred Scriptures,  which  bring  life  and  immortality  to 
light. 

Such  is  the  course  of  universal  experience.  And  if 
the  picture  seem  dark  and  repulsive,  and  inappropriate 
to  this  joyous  occasion,  when  you  are  fondly  dreaming 
of  long  life  and  uninterrupted  felicity  and  honour — be 
assured  that  I  have  no  desire  to  cast  a  single  shade  upon 
the  bright  perspective  which  youthful  fancy  delights  to 
contemplate.  For  I  have  been  as  young,  as  imagina- 
tive and  as  sanguine  as  any  of  you :  and  although  I  do 
not  yet  rank  in  years  with  the  elders  of  the  land,  I 
have  lived  long  enough  to  inscribe  "vanity  of  vanities" 
upon  all  sul^lunary  good ;  and  to  be  satisfied  that  some- 
thing more  than  this  poor  dazzling  world  can  yield  is 
essential  to  the  aspirings  of  an  immortal  mind.  I 
would,  therefore,  in  all  sincerity  and  kindness,  tender 
to  you  the  humble  boon  of  my  own  experience,  and  ex- 
hort you  to  be  wise  betimes,  and  to  provide  for  the  day 
of  trial  and  suffering  and  desertion  and  anguish,  that  it 
steal  not  upon  you  unawares,  and  that  you  may  draw 
consolation  from  a  heavenly  fountain ;  and  be  enabled 
to  submit  with  a  Christian's  hope  and  a  Christian's  spirit 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  225 

to  every  dispeusatiou  of  Providence ;  and  thus  finally  to 
triumph  over  every  temptation  and  every  foe,  till  you 
reach,  at  last,  the  blessed,  peaceful,  hallowed  mansions, 
where  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling  and  where  the 
weary  will  be  at  rest  forever ! 


15 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS. 


[CUMBERLAND  COLLEGE,  OCTOBER  5,  1831.] 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS, 

AT   CUMBERLAND   COLLEGE,  183L 


Young  Gentlemen  : 

To  say  that  your  education  is  now  finished — as  the 
fashionable  phrase  is,  in  reference  to  youth  on  lea^dng 
college— would  be  an  egregious  abuse  of  language.  You 
are  presumed  merely  to  have  mastered  the  elements— 
the  alphabet,  as  it  were— of  a  few  valuable  sciences  and 
branches  of  literature;  and  to  have  learned  hmo  to 
study.  With  this  scanty  furniture,  and  intellectual 
discipline,  you  are  about  to  commence  a  course  of  more 
thorough,  varied  and  extensive  research,  which  is  to 
terminate  but  with  your  lives.  We  take  it  for  granted, 
that  this  sentiment  is  deeply  engraven  upon  your  hearts. 
We  have  laboured,  as  you  will  testify,  to  render  it  fami- 
liar to  your  minds,  as  a  truth  or  first  principle,  not  tO  be 
questioned.  As  students— as  learners  then— you  have 
barely  approached  the  threshold  of  that  proud  temple 
of  intellectual  grandeur,  which  it  will  be  the  business 
of  future  life  to  strive,  by  every  honourable  and  manly 
effort,  to  enter  and  to  possess  as  your  own. 

Mere  persevering  application  to  books,  or  universal 
readino-,  however,  will  not  suffice  to  ensure  a  useful, 


230  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

brilliant  or  successful  career.  A  habit  of  reflection — of 
profound  inquiry — of  calm,  dispassionate,  unprejudiced 
investigation  —  of  logical  discrimination  and  rigid  de- 
monstration— must  be  acquired.  I  do  not  say  tliat  you 
must  first  doubt  in  regard  to  all  received  principles  and 
doctrines,  before  you  yield  assent  to  any.  Wliat  is  usually 
denominated  a  skeptical  turn  of  mind  has  seldom,  if 
ever,  been  found  to  be  either  very  generous,  or  very 
modest,  or  very  docile,  or  very  sagacious,  or  very  bene- 
ficial to  mankind.  It  is  no  proof  of  genius,  or  mental 
vigour,  or  manly  independence.  I  warn  you  therefore 
against  that  spirit  of  vulgar  vanity  and  refined  pyrrhon- 
ism  which  affects  to  exalt  itself  above  the  wisdom,  and 
the  faith,  and  the  philosophy,  and  the  common  sense,  of 
the  most  enlightened  sages  and  the  most  devoted  bene- 
factors of  our  race.  But  truth  dreads  no  scrutiny.  She 
courts  no  concealment  and  no  disguise ;  and  needs  no 
arbitrary  or  extrinsic  support.  She  prefers  her  claims  to 
credence  and  acceptance  openly  and  boldly,  and  disdains 
all  casuistic  sophistry  and  all  prescriptive  dominion. 
Fear  not  then,  with  the  genuine  temper  of  sincere  learn- 
ers, to  examine  into  the  nature  and  foundations  of  any 
system  or  of  any  doctrine,  however  important,  or  how- 
ever venerated,  or  however  sanctioned,  which  may  be  pre- 
sented to  your  consideration.  If  it  be  true  and  valuable, 
you  will  be  amply  rewarded  for  your  pains  in  the  investi- 
gation, by  the  strong  conviction  which  will  fasten  upon 
your  minds,  and  which  will  induce  you  cheerfully  to 
acknowledge  and  manfully  to  defend  it. 

It  Avould  be   absurd   to  accept  even  the  Newtonian 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  231 

philosophy  upon  the  mere  dicta  of  Newton,  when  you 
have  it  in  your  power  to  judge  of  all  the  proofs  and 
evidence  which  led  him  to  its  adoption.  It  would  be 
absurd  to  take  upon  trust  any  mathematical  result 
whatever  —  any  proposition  of  Euclid,  for  example  — 
when  all  the  steps  of  the  demonstration  are  at  your 
command. 

A  summary  catechism  of  mere  facts  and  doctrines  is 
never  put  into  the  hands  of  youth  with  a  view  to  make 
them  proficients  in  science.  Youth  might  in  this  way, 
learn  to  prate  like  parrots,  about  the  most  abstruse  prin- 
ciples of  science,  and  yet  be  totally  ignorant  of  the  basis 
upon  which  they  rest.  Error,  as  w^ell  as  truth,  may  be 
inculcated  upon  such  a  plan.  A  child  may  be  taught 
to  say  that  the  three  angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to 
two  right  angles — and  this  would  be  true.  He  might, 
however,  with  equal  ease,  be  taught  to  say  that  the 
three  angles  of  a  triangle  are  equal  to  a  dozen  right 
angles.  In  both  cases,  the  party  might  continue  through 
life  to  repeat  as  truth  the  lesson  of  his  master :  and,  in 
both  cases,  he  would  be  equally  ignorant;  that  is, 
equally  incapable  of  giving  a  reason  for  his  belief  The 
absurdity  of  such  a  procedure,  in  reference  to  the  exact 
and  experimental  sciences,  is  sufficiently  obvious.  And 
Bacon  and  Newton  have  long  since  exploded  the  scholas- 
tic dogmatism  of  Aristotle  and  Ptolemy. 

The  vast  region  of  moral  truth  demands  the  same 
patient,  rigid,  inductive  process,  in  order  to  arrive  at 
satisfactory  results.  But  here,  unhappily,  the  world 
has  hitherto  been  accustomed  to    an   indolent  passive 


232  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

obedience  to  the  prevailing  system — without  presuming 
to  question  the  why  or  the  icherefore.  Master  spirits 
there  have  been,  in  ahnost  every  age,  who  have  nobly 
stood  forth  as  the  energetic  and  benevolent  champions 
of  the  intellectual,  moral,  political,  and  rehgious  rights 
of  the  people.  But  their  enlightened  sentiments  have 
not  yet  obtained  complete  currency  in  any  country ;  and 
in  most  countries  they  still  remain  locked  up  in  the 
minds  of  the  initiated  reflecting  few.  The  efforts  of 
Peter  the  Great  of  Russia — of  Joseph  the  Second  of 
Austria — and  of  the  j)resent  Grand  Signior  of  Turkey — 
to  introduce  certain  improvements  into  their  respective 
empires,  will  serve  to  show  how  difficult  and  dangerous 
it  is  to  change  popular  customs,  o^Dinions  and  habits, 
even  in  matters  of  comparative  indifference.  Roger 
Bacon,  Copernicus  and  Galileo,  were  duly  persecuted  for 
adventurmg  beyond  the  prescribed  limits  of  orthodox 
philosophy.  Wickliife,  Jerome  and  Huss  became  the 
victims  of  ecclesiastical  bigotry,  because  they  dared  to 
think  for  themselves  in  an  age  when  impHcit  faith  was 
the  only  passport  to  honour  in  this  world,  or  to  salvation 
in  the  next.  Hampden,  Sidney,  Russell,  Milton,  Locke, 
laboured  and  wrote  and  suffered  in  behalf  of  human 
liberty,  long  before  the  public  mind  was  prepared  to 
profit  by  their  example  or  their  lessons. 

So  slow  is  the  progress  of  moral  truth  into  the  gene- 
ral mind,  that  numerous  pioneers  and  martyrs  in  the 
holy  cause  have  been  required  to  ensure  it  an  incipient 
existence,  and  to  give  it  a  progressive  impulse ;  that  it 
might,  peradventure.  under  happier  auspices,  grope  its 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  233 

way  into  the  dark  places  and  strongholds  of  error,  super- 
stition and  despotism.  In  recurring  to  the  history  of 
Christendom,  during  the  last  three  centuries,  we  shall, 
on  the  whole,  descry  much  substantial  ground  of  encou- 
ragement to  persevere  in  similar  exertions  for  the 
benefit  of  mankind.  Luther  and  Newton  triumphed 
where  Galileo  and  Jerome  failed.  And  the  writings 
of  Sidney,  Milton  and  Locke  prepared  the  great  public, 
in  another  age  and  in  a  distant  hemisphere,  to  act 
at  the  bidding  of  Franklin,  Washington,  Adams  and 
Jefferson. 

The  art  of  printing  has  nearly  dissipated  the  igno- 
rance and  prejudice  which  had  so  long  and  so  pertina- 
ciously resisted  the  progress  of  pure  science.  And  the 
fooleries  of  the  Alchymists  and  Rosicrucians  are  not 
likely  to  be  revived.  Science  and  philosophy  have 
gained  the  victory,  and  are  suffered  to  advance,  without 
let  or  hinderance  from  any  inquisitorial  tribunal. 

Moral  truth  has  been  less  favoured.  Still,  she  has 
struggled  nobly,  and  much  has  she  achieved.  The 
popular  mind  has  commenced  its  onward  march.  It 
has  discovered  —  what,  indeed,  Sidney  taught,  and  for 
which  he  dared  to  die  a  century  and  a  half  ago — that 
kings  and  rulers  were  made  for  the  people,  and  not  the 
people  for  them.  That  they  are  the  servants  of  the 
people,  and  that  when  they  cease  to  promote  the  weal 
of  the  people,  they  may  no  longer  be  trusted  with 
power.  The  kingly  and  priestly  doctrine  of  passive 
obedience  and  non-resistance  has  been  exploded.  The 
arrogant  claims  of  legitimacy  and  orthodoxy  —  that  is, 


234  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

the  code  and  the  creed  of  the  powers  that  be — ^have 
been  boldly  challenged.  The  infallibilitj^  of  the  ehurch, 
and  the  perfection  of  bench-made  law,  are  shrewdly  sus- 
pected. And  the  whole  fabric  of  prescriptive  despotism 
is  daily  assailed  b}^  the  intrepid  spirit  of  reformation. 

The  world  is  more  indebted  to  the  immortal  Franklin 
for  the  judicious  exhibition  and  wide  diffusion  of  useful 
knowledge  than  to  any  other  individual  within  the  last 
hundred  years.  His  sagacious  and  benevolent  spirit 
pervaded  not  only  the  mysterious  laws  of  nature,  but 
the  whole  economy  of  domestic  life  and  the  policy  of 
national  governments ;  reached  the  fireside  of  the  pea- 
sant, the  throne  of  the  monarch,  the  altar  of  the  priest, 
and  the  rudimental  principles  of  all  civil  institutions 
and  political  associations.  He  imparted  a  momentum 
to  general  improvement  which  has  ever  since  been 
steadily  increasing ;  in  spite  of  the  determined  opposi- 
tion of  arbitrary  power  and  the  invincible  obstinacy  of 
self-sufficient  ignorance. 

Adam  Smith  elaborated  into  s^^stematic  expansion 
man}'  of  the  simple  truths  of  the  Franklinian  school,  and 
thus  created  the  beautiful  science  of  Political  Economy; 
which  is  now  taught  in  every  college,  and  controverted 
(and  justly,  in  regard  to  some  of  its  principles,)  in  every 
legislative  hall. 

It>  is  of  great  importance  to  young  men,  and  to  all 
men,  to  be  able  to  appreciate  the  relative  value  of  differ- 
ent kinds  of  truth.  Some  things  may  be  true,  and  yet 
be  unimportant.  Some  may  be  curious  and  interesting, 
and  yet  be  merely  speculative.      Some  may  be  so  pro- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  235 

found  and  mysterious  in  their  very  nature,  as  to  lie 
utterly  beyond  our  intellectual  grasp.  To  dispute  and 
contend  about  anj'  of  these  would  be  idle  and  uncha- 
ritable. And  yet  most  controverted  points  in  theology 
and  metaphysics  fall  under  one  or  another  of  these 
heads ;  as  do  nearlj'  all  tliose  which  constitute  doctrinal 
heresy  in  the  judgment  of  most  ecclesiastical  judicato- 
ries. Practical  moral  truth,  on  the  other  hand — such 
truth  as  directly  or  indirectly  influences  conduct — is 
important  just  in  proportion  to  its  moral  practical  in- 
fluence. Every  patriot,  every  philanthropist,  every  good 
man,  therefore,  will  esteem  it  his  duty  and  make  it  his 
dailj'  study  to  ascertain  the  genuine  character  and  ten- 
dency of  all  such  truth,  or  of  all  practical  principles, 
motives  and  doctrines. 

Thus,  for  instance,  every  American  citizen  is  by  birth- 
right a  politician  :  and  every  man  of  superior  talents, 
education  and  influence,  ought  to  be  an  enlightened 
politician.  It  is  his  duty  then  to  study  jDolitics — not 
merely  the  general  science  as  taught  in  a  few  standard 
class-books;  still  less,  the  narrow,  selfish,  local,  I3arty, 
personal  politics  of  our  village  gazettes — but  the  great 
principles  of  government,  of  legislation,  of  jurisprudence, 
of  international  comity,  of  natural  and  social  rights,  of 
political  economy,  in  all  their  applications,  general  and 
particular,  which  are  calculated  to  promote  the  greatest 
good  of  the  whole  body  of  the  people.  He  should  study 
to  comprehend  the  remote  bearings,  as  well  as  the  innne- 
diate  consequences  of  everj-  measure.  He  should  look 
to  the  permanent  welfare  of  the  federal  Union  to  which 


236  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

he  belongs,  as  well  as  to  the  particular  commonwealth 
of  which  he  is  a  citizen.  Nor  ought  he  ever  as  a  politi- 
cian, to  countenance  any  system  or  project  manifestly 
injurious  to  any  section  or  portion  of  the  great  National 
Kepublic,  in  order  to  benefit  his  own  State,  or  county,  or 
friends,  or  party.  He  should  consider  the  preservation 
of  our  constitutional  union,  by  all  constitutional  means, 
as  a  sacred  obligation — as  an  object  ever  to  be  aimed  at, 
and  never  to  be  lost  sight  of.  Personal  predilections 
and  local  interests  ought  never  to  bias  his  judgment  or 
bribe  his  integrity. 

The  American  politician  ought  to  be  an  Aristides 
amidst  the  tumultuous  hostilities  and  convulsions  of 
popular  excitement  and  unprincipled  ambition.  He 
ought  to  be  a  Franklin,  just,  moderate,  sagacious,  calm, 
self-possessed,  fruitful  in  resources  and  expedients,  yield- 
ing in  trifles,  immovable  in  great  principles, — whenever 
his  country  is  distracted  by  the  clamour  and  rage  of 
conflicting  interests  or  imaginary  wrongs.  To  soothe, 
restrain  and  guide  the  ignorant  infatuated  multitude, — 
to  anticipate,  counteract  and  defeat  the  selfish  schemes 
of  false  patriots  and  knavish  demagogues — will  require 
no  ordinary  wisdom,  firmness  and  address.  A  host  of 
such  politicians  our  country  now  demands,  and  Avill  ever 
demand.     Shall  our  colleges  furnish  them  ? 

To  show  the  extent  and  intricacy  of  many  a  question 
in  the  ordinary  routine  of  everj'  day  legislation,  the 
American  tariff  might  be  specified.  Does  one  man  of 
a  thousand,  among  either  its  advocates  or  opponents, 
throughout  these  United  States,  comprehend  its  object, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  237 

its  character,  or  its  ultimate  tendencies  ?  And  yet  all 
are  expected  to  give  their  suffrages  according  to  the 
opinion  which  they 'have  been  taiujld  to  entertain  re- 
specting it.  I  say  nothing  of  its  merits — whether  good 
or  evil — right  or  wrong — constitutional  or  unconstitu- 
tional— politic  or  impolitic — judicious  or  injudicious.  I 
merely  submit  this  as  a  specimen  to  illustrate  the  neces- 
sity of  impartial  and  thorough  investigation,  in  order  to 
be  competent  to  judge  for  ourselves  and  for  those  over 
whom  we  may  have  influence.  Into  the  arena  of  party 
politics  or  of  party  religion,  you  will  bear  me  w^itness, 
I  have  never  descended.  Against  the  bitterness,  the 
illiberality,  the  prejudice  and  the  fury  of  party  spirit, 
whether  in  politics  or  religion,  I  have  often  warned  you. 
But  the  politics  of  no  party,  and  the  religion  of  no  church 
or  sect,  have  ever  been  lauded  or  censured  by  me  in  your 
hearing.  And  my  last  advice  on  this  topic,  is  still  the 
same.  So  far  as  you  may  be  politicians,  live  and  labour 
— and,  if  need  be, — die  for  your  country. 

Since  I  have  adverted  to  the  subject  of  politics,  as  one 
of  engrossing  interest  to  my  countrymen,  it  may  not  be 
ill-timed  to  caution  you  against  that  precocious  and  inor- 
dinate desire  after  public  offices,  which  is  so  prevalent 
among  our  young  men  at  the  present  day.  Scarcely 
have  they  completed  a  hasty  novitiate  at  school  or  col- 
lege, and  lounged  in  a  law  office  some  six  months  or  a 
year,  off  and  on,  when  they  manifest  a  most  confident 
capacity  and  overweening  eagerness  to  assume  the  re- 
sponsibilities, and  to  wear  the  honours  of  office.  Now 
it  strikes  me,  tha.t  this  is  somewhat  premature;    and 


9?J 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 


that  it  does  not  savour  much  of  talent,  or  modesty,  or 
patriotism.  Whether  they  will  ever  acquire  skill  by 
practice  —  as  our  self-made  physicians  occasionally  do, 
after  killing  a  dozen  or  two  of  their  patients  by  way  of 
experiment — I  pretend  not  to  decide. 

I  advise  you,  however,  to  mind  your  own  proper  busi- 
ness or  profession,  whatever  it  be,  until  you  shall  have 
secured  a  competency  to  live  on  before  you  ever  suffer 
yourselves  to  become  candidates  for  popular  favour — 
and,  at  any  rate,  before  you  consent  to  accept  of  any 
office  or  subordinate  appointment  involving  pecuniary 
responsibility.  Human  frailty  is  not  to  be  trusted  under 
the  pressure  of  wants  created  by  a  fashionable  style  of 
living,  and  but  inadequately  supplied  by  the  meager 
salary  and  perquisites,  which  usually  attach  to  most  of 
the  petty  offices  within  the  gift  of  the  executive  or  legis- 
lature of  the  Union  or  of  the  several  States.  How  many 
respectable  individuals  in  our  country,  by  acts  of  fraud 
and  embezzlement,  to  which  their  confidential  posts 
afforded  peculiar  facilities  as  well  as  extraordinary 
temptations,  have  made  shipwreck  of  their  integrity, 
blasted  the  fairest  prospects,  ruined  their  families,  dis- 
graced their  connexions — and,  perhaps,  in  the  phrensy 
of  despair,  have  destroyed  their  own  lives  to  avoid  the 
shame  and  the  risk  of  a  public  trial ! 

Better  to  labour  hard  and  long — better  to  eat  the 
bread  of  carefulness  and  obscurity  many  years  —  than 
thus  to  jeopard  character  under  any  circumstances,  or 
for  any  immediate  relief  or  temporary  advantage.  No 
man  will   long   be   virtuous  who   is   not   independent. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  239 

Whoever  lives  beyond  liis  income,  be  it  large  or  small, 
has  passed  the  limits  of  strict  honesty,  and  is  already  in 
the  broad  road  to  ruin.  Resolve,  then,  at  the  outset,  to 
be  independent ;  and  never  to  incur  a  debt  which  you 
are  unable  to  j^ay.  Labour  also  to  acquire  as  much 
property  as  will  ensure  your  independence  in  any  station 
which  3^ou  may  desire  to  fill,  or  to  which  your  country 
may  invite  you. 

Public  offices  were  created  for  the  public  benefit,  and 
not  for  particular  incumbents.  They  ought  always  to 
be  conferred  on  those  who  are  best  qualified  to  serve  the 
people,  and  never  to  provide  a  maintenance  for  needy 
aspirants  or  impudent  adventurers.  Whoever  covets  an 
office  merely  to  live  by,  gives  pretty  good  evidence  that 
he  is  not  fit  for  it.  Whatever  may  be  said  about  rota- 
tion in  office — and  I  like  the  doctrine,  according  to  its 
genuine  republican  and  salutary  construction  —  it  was 
never  intended  that  every  man  should  have  every  office 
or  any  office  in  turn,  or  that  an  office  should  pass  suc- 
cessively to  any  given  number  of  individuals,  however 
unqualified,  but  merely  that  any  individual  duly  quali- 
fied should  be  eligible  at  the  pleasure  of  the  electing  or 
appointing  power. 

It  is  the  duty  of  every  man  to  serve  his  country;  but 
it  is  not  the  duty  of  every  man  to  seek,  by  any  means, 
foul  or  fair,  to  govern  his  country.  A  man  may  be  a 
true  patriot,  and  not  boast  of  his  patriotism,  or  be  eter- 
nally preferring  his  patriotic  claims  to  the  people.  Cati- 
line boasted  —  Arnold  boasted  —  and,  no  doubt,  their 
boasting  satisfied   some  well   meaning   men  that  they 


240  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

were  honest  patriots.  Cincinnatus  and  Washington, 
however,  fill  a  different  page  in  the  world's  history. 

How  much  of  moral  practical  truth  remains  yet  to  be 
discovered,  or  still  to  be  introduced  to  general  accept- 
ance, cannot,  of  course,  be  even  conjectured.  The 
science  of  Political  Economy  is  but  a  branch  of  practi- 
cal ethics;  and  jurisprudence  is  another.  The  whole 
system  of  legislation  bears  more  or  less  directly  and  in- 
tensely on  the  moral  character  of  the  people.  The  legis- 
lator, the  statesman,  the  judge,  is  a  moralist  ex  cathedra 
for  good  or  for  evil. 

All  laws  giving  an  arbitrary  direction  to  the  employ- 
ment of  capital — affecting  the  production,  the  distribu- 
tion or  the  consumption  of  wealth;  the  tenure  and 
transfer  of  real  property ;  the  rights  of  persons ;  popu- 
lar education  ;  the  elective  franchise ; — defining  or  regu- 
lating pauperism,  bankruptcy,  oaths,  appeals,  rules  of 
evidence,  religious  tests,  trials  by  jury,  freedom  of  the 
press,  libel,  taxation,  judicial  forms  and  procedures,  the 
entire  criminal  code — must  necessarily  exert  a  moral  in- 
fluence of  some  kind.     Thus,  for  example  : — 

An  injudicious  system  of  Banking,  established  by  law, 
may  open  upon  a  community  the  floodgates  of  iniquity, 
and  lead  to  all  manner  of  swindling  and  profligacy. 
Witness  the  condition  of  several  of  the  Western  States 
a  few  years  ago. 

Foreign  commerce  may  be  so  regulated  and  restricted 
as  to  render  smuggling  a  lucrative,  and  even  a  reputable 
business;    and  thus  operate  to  the  discouragement  of 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  241 

honest  industiy,  and  to  the  diminution  of  the  very 
revenue  which  it  was  designed  to  augment. 

Laws  prescribing  the  market  price  or  interest  of 
money  may  be  so  arbitrary  and  ill-timed  as  to  serve  no 
other  end  but  to  tempt  men  to  the  legal  crime  of  usury. 

A  militia  .system,  requiring  occasional  musters  of  the 
peojile,  may,  hy  the  manner  in  which  they  are  conducted, 
be  directl}'  demoralizing.  And  it  is  always  inequitable 
when  it  exacts  as  much  from  the  poor  man  as  from  the 
rich — to  say  nothing  of  its  utter  inefficiency,  as  military 
men  have  pronounced  it  to  be  in  most  of  the  States. 

To  incarcerate  an  honest  but  unfortunate  debtor,  is 
always  gratuitous  and  unavailing  oppression.  In  most 
instances,  the  creditor  is  more  culpable  than  the  debtor. 
The  latter  is  often  the  mere  dupe  of  the  former.  In 
nine  cases  out  of  ten,  perhaps,  the  creditor  ought  to  be 
imprisoned  rather  than  the  debtor. 

Three-fourths,  it  is  universally  admitted,  I  believe 
nine-tenths  of  the  crime,  disease,  pauperism  and  wretch- 
edness in  our  country,  are  fairly  attributable  to  intem- 
perance. That  is,  to  the  current  and  temperate  use  of 
ardent  spirits  by  the  people  generally.  The  criminal — 
made  so  by  intemperance — is  duly  punished.  But  the 
cause  of  his  ruin  remains  untouched.  The  manufacturer 
and  vender  of  this  moral  and  physical  poison  may  sit  in 
judgment  upon  the  victim  of  his  avarice,  and  doom  him 
to  the  penitentiary  or  the  gallows. 

Gambling — that  is,  games  of  hazard — may  be  inter- 
dicted under  heavy  penalties ;    while  horse-racing  and 

VOL.  I.  16 


242  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

lotteries,  which  are  themselves  modes  of  gambling,  and 
which  are  always  accompanied  by  every  other  species  of 
pernicious  gambling,  may  be  authorised  and  encouraged 
by  one  and  the  same  legislature. 

Oaths  may  be  administered  so  frequently,  and  with  so 
little  solemnity,  as  very  nearly  to  destroy  their  legal 
utility,  and  utterty  to  divest  them,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people,  of  their  religious  character  and  sanctions. 
Quakers  and  Moravians  are  proverbially  remarkable 
for  their  strict  adherence  to  truth ;  and  their  simple 
affirmation  is  much  less  frequently  questioned  or  sus- 
pected than  the  more  formal  oath  which  is  customarily 
exacted  from  other  Christians. 

Excessive  legislation,  no  less  than  vicious  legislation, 
is  an  evil,  and  is  always  to  be  deprecated.  Men  will 
ever  make  a  distinction,  with  or  without  reason,  between 
things  mala  in  se,  things  in  themselves  unlawful,  and 
mala  proJdhita,  things  which  become  unlawful  from  be- 
ing prohibited  by  the  legislature. 

But  I  leave  to  jurists  to  expose  the  immoral  tendency 
of  particular  enactments,  and  of  the  whole  mysterious 
and  labyrinthian  system  with  which  they  are  officially 
and  most  painfully  conversant.  I  merely  present,  as 
a  universally  acknowledged  grievance,  the  delay,  the 
uncertainty,  and  the  expensiveness,  of  the  system.  This 
is  an  evil  which  all  feel,  and  of  which  all  complain. 

The  army  of  the  law — as  it  has  been  significantly 
styled — comprising  judges,  magistrates,  lawyers,  mar- 
shals, sheriffs,  constables,  &c. — amounts  to  some  twenty 
thousand  men  in  the  United  States  :   and  the  annual  ex- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  243 

penso  of  the  whole  system  cannot  be  less  than  twelve  or 
fifteen  millions  of  dollars.  That  there  is  ample  room  for 
improvement  therefore,  in  some  fashion,  none  will  deny. 
How  the  work  is  to  be  achieved,  admits  of  much  ques- 
tion, and  assuredly  demands  the  gravest  consideration. 
Some  experiments  have  been  made,  both  in  the  old 
w^orld  and  in  the  new,  which  promise  lasting  benefit — 
either  from  the  adoption  of  7iew  codes,  or  from  a  judicious 
revision  and  simplification  of  ancient,  complex  and  ill- 
defined  statutes  and  judicial  decisions,  and  from  their 
lucid  classification  and  arrangement  under  distinct  titles 
and  intelligible  principles. 

The  regret  has  been  often  expressed  by  several  of  our 
most  eminent  patriots  and  statesmen,  that,  wdien  our 
fathers  emancipated  their  country  from  the  tyranny  of 
the  British  Government,  they  did  not  also  free  it  from, 
what  they  esteemed,  the  more  galling  tyranny  of  British 
jurisprudence.  Whether  such  an  opinion  were  too  un- 
qualified, or  altogether  untenable,  fiills  not  within  my 
humble  province  to  decide. 

My  object,  in  this  passing  notice,  is  not  to  suggest  the 
remedy,  but  to  testify  against  the  evil — if  it  be  an  evil 
— that  some  of  my  wiser  and  more  enlightened  pupils, 
whose  future  lives  shall  be  devoted  to  legal  studies  and 
pursuits,  may  keep  the  subject  steadily  in  view,  and  be 
induced  to  give  it  that  thorough,  patient,  philosophical 
and  patriotic  investigation  which  its  immense  and  daily 
increasing  importance  demands. 

It  is  difficult  for  the  uninitiated  to  believe  that  the 
administration  of  justice  must  necessarily  assume  that 


244  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

formidable,  tortuous  and  everlasting  delusiveness  which 
has  hitherto  distinguished  it.  It  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  the  law  must  be  made  a  j^rofound,  intricate,  and 
almost  iinlearnahle  science  or  mystery — requiring,  the  life 
of  a  Methuselah  to  comprehend  and  to  expound  it.  It 
is  difficult  to  believe  that  laws  cannot  be  so  clearly  ex- 
pressed and  rigidly  interpreted  as  to  be  within  the  intel- 
lectual scope  of  ordinary  well  educated  men,  or  that  such 
men  might  not  be  safely  entrusted  with  their  righteous 
application.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  puzzling  tech- 
nicalities or  cabalistic  terms  and  phrases  contribute,  in 
the  least,  to  truth  and  equity; — however  much  they 
may  avail  the  purses  of  those  who  are  duly  skilled  in 
the  adroit  use  of  them. 

I  cannot  think  well  of  a  system  which  is  peculiarly 
onerous  and  vexatious  to  peaceable,  honest,  industrious, 
meritorious  citizens ;  and  auspicious  chiefly  to  the  quar- 
relsome, the  idle,  the  mischievous,  the  unprincipled — to 
the  wily  knave  or  reckless  desperado — whose  case  can 
never  be  made  worse,  but  may  be  greatly  alleviated 
under  the  operation  of  its  complex  and  ticklish  mar 
chinery.  The  former  therefore  dread  and  studiously 
avoid  it;  while  the  latter  are  eager  to  court  its  smiles 
and  to  presume  on  the  chances  of  victory  or  acquittal. 
The  innocent  and  the  injured  are  harassed  and  op- 
pressed by  it :  the  guilty  and  the  litigious  alone  look 
to  it  for  favours.  And,  in  both  cases,  the  community 
is  a  grievous  sufferer. 

The  every  day  operations  of  our  common  law  courts 
(as  I  have  witnessed   them   in  other  States,)   exhibit 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  245 

proof  enough  of  the  chicanery,  the  charlatanry,  the  ab- 
surdity, the  mockery  and  the  abominable  extortions  to 
which  the  liigh-mmded  freemen  of  my  country  are  often 
subjected  in  their  pursuit  of  justice. 

I  liave  heard  veteran  lawyers  declare — and  they  ought 
to  know,  and  to  their  opinion  I  always  most  respectfully 
defer — that  an  honest  unlettered  farmer  of  good  common 
sense,  would,  Avithout  the  aid  of  any  other  law  than  that 
which  is  engraved  upon  the  human  heart,  decide  the 
petty  differences  which  usually  arise  among  neighbours 
more  equitably  and  satisfactorily,  in  general,  than  is 
now  Ijradicahle  in  any  court  whatever.  Than  is  7i(yw 
practicable,  they  add ;  because,  allowing  the  decision  to 
be  right,  yet  the  expense  incurred  will  make  it  a  ivrmig — 
will  convert  justice  into  injustice.  And,  in  forty-nine 
cases  out  of  fifty,  those  who  win  in  court  according  to 
law,  will  lose  in  purse,  and  be  much  the  w^orse  for  their 
gains. 

"  Laws  (says  Mr.  Jefferson)  ought  to  be  made  for  men 
of  ordinary  understanding,  and  should  therefore  be  con- 
strued by  the  ordinary  rules  of  common  sense.  Their 
meaning  ought  not  to  be  sought  for  in  metaphysical  sub- 
tleties, which  may  make  anything  mean  everything  or 
nothing  at  pleasure."  It  should  not  be  left  to  the 
sophisms  of  advocates  w^hose  trade  it  is  to  make  the 
worse  appear  the  better  reason,  and  to  clear  their  clients 
per  fas  et  nefas,  or  to  hold  them  in  suspense  until  they 
shall  be  fairly  fleeced  of  all  their  earthly  substance,  and 
be  no  longer  worth  the  serving. 

If  the  system  which  has  hitherto  prevailed,  be,  in  its 


246  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

very  nature,  per23etual  and  unalterable — if  nothing'  can 
be  done  to  relieve  future  generations  from  the  dogmas 
of  the  present  or  the  past — if  we  must  continue  to  pin 
our  faith  upon  the  sleeve  or  the  ermine  of  a  series  of 
courts  without  beginning  or  ending — then  let  us  boast 
no  more  of  the  march  of  mind  and  the  triumphs  of 
liberty.  Let  us  rather  sit  down  in  despair,  with  folded 
arms,  under  the  dark  shadow  of  the  deep-rooted  tree  of 
despotism,  which  has  been  growing,  and  flourishing,  and 
spreading  wide  its  branches,  ever  since  the  age  of  good 
king  Alfred,  or  at  least  since  the  glorious  epoch  of 
Magna  Charta,  and  which  seems  destined  to  grow  and 
flourish  while  an  English  world  shall  exist  to  feel  its  in- 
fluence, and  to  acknowledge  its  blighting  dominion. 

I  put  all  this,  however,  hj'pothetically — not  dogmati- 
cally. I  admire  the  theory  of  the  common  law,  when  it 
is  said  to  be  reason  and  the  perfection  of  reason — or  the 
"  application  of  common  sense,  disciplined  and  directed  by 
certain  established  principles,  to  the  affairs  of  men."  The 
most  perfect  civil  and  penal  codes  that  human  wisdom 
could  devise,  would  not  be  literally  and  invariably  adapted 
to  all  times,  cases  and  contingencies.  Much  latitude  of 
construction  and  discretionary  jurisdiction  would  still,  of 
necessity,  attach  to  the  judicial  tribunals.  In  all  civil 
cases  not  clearly  provided  for  by  statute,  they  would  be 
compelled  to  assume  original  powers  and  to  decide  ac- 
cording to  the  spirit  and  analogies  of  the  great  legal 
system  of  their  country,  and  agreeably  to  the  universally 
recognized  principles  of  reason  and  equity.  Such  is  the 
beautiful  theory  which  w^e   already  possess.      It  is  the 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  247 

abuse  and  perversion  of  the  theory — sanctioned  by  im- 
memorial usage,  and  rendered  capricious,  versatile,  cap- 
tious and  oppressive  in  its  practical  applications — that 
jDrovokes  censure  and  denunciation.  The  decrees  and 
judgments  of  courts,  instead  of  being  subjected  to  the 
severe  scrutiny  and  critical  revision,  to  the  controlling 
power  and  modifying  process,  which  the  theory  implies 
and  enjoins,  have  too  often  usurped  the  prerogatives  of 
the  theory  itself,  and  been  blindly  received  as  the  very 
oracles  of  reason  and  justice.  Whether  it  is  possible  to 
recur  once  more  to  simple  elementary  principles  —  to 
avail  ourselves  of  the  wisdom  and  experience  of  other 
ages  and  nations — and  thus  to  set  out  u^^on  a  safer  plan, 
and  to  pursue  a  more  natural,  direct  and  obvious  course, 
under  the  guidance  of  pure  unsophisticated  reason — will 
be  seen  when  our  future  Marshalls  and  Kents  and 
Livingstons  shall  have  expended  their  intellectual  stores 
and  vigour  upon  the  mighty  task. 

Cicero  in  his  treatise  De  Legibus,  remarks,  "  that  law 
{i.e.  general,  not  positive  law.)  is  the  perfection  of  rea- 
son, seated  in  nature,  commanding  what  is  right,  and 
prohibiting  what  is  wrong.  Its  beginning  (he  adds)  is 
to  be  traced  to  times  before  any  law  was  written,  or  any 
express  form  of  government  adopted."  And  wherever 
natural  reason  retains  and  exerts  her  j^aramount  do- 
minion and  plastic  influence,  unchecked  by  absolute  or 
arbitrary  power  on  the  one  hand,  and  unperverted  by 
the  ignorance  or  passions  of  the  people  or  of  the  2Deoi3le's 
servants  on  the  other,  no  system  of  written  or  unwritten 
law^  will  prove  incurably  and  desperately  vicious.     It 


248  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

will  be  gradually  meliorated  and  reformed  with  the  im- 
proving and  advancing  spirit  of  the  age.  It  will  not  be 
deemed  sufficient  to  ascertain  what  the  rules  of  courts  are : 
— the  policy  of  the  rules  themselves  will  be  open  to  dis- 
cussion ;  and  they  will  be  fairly  and  thoroughly  canvassed. 

I  am  perfectly  aware  that  innovation  is  not  always 
improvement.  And  that  the  wildest  visionaries  may  be 
found  among  radical  reformers,  political  Solomons,  and 
economical  utilitarians,  as  well  as  among  religious  zealots 
and  enthusiasts.  But  before  an  enlightened,  sober,  re- 
flecting, practical  people,  the  schemes  even  of  the  vision- 
ary and  the  fanatic  may  be  canvassed  without  danger. 
They  will  ultimately  be  estimated  according  to  their 
value. 

With  us,  the  people  are  sovereign.  They  rule  our 
rulers.  They  give  the  tone  and  impulse  to  the  entire 
machinery  of  government.  They  constitute  the  empire 
of  public  opinion — the  last  tribunal,  from  which  there 
lies  no  appeal.  When  they  are  wrong,  all  is  wrong. 
Improvement  of  every  kind  must  commence  with  them 
and  be  consummated  by  them.  Every  new  principle  of 
action — every  new  moral  or  political  truth  requiring  a 
change  in  the  popular  habits — must  first  take  root  and 
effect  among  the  people,  before  it  will  reach  the  halls  of 
legislation  or  the  bench  of  justice.  The  wise  and  the 
good,  indeed,  must  first  agitate,  arouse,  and  inform  the 
people; — but  the  joeople  themselves  must  decide  what 
shall  eventually  be  law  and  usage.  How  true,  and  yet 
how  lightly  appreciated  is  the  maxim  of  our  republican 
sages,  that,  upon  the  broad  basis  of  universal  intelligence 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  249 

and  virtue  must  rest  the  proud  fabric  of  our  boasted 
liberties  and  popular  institutions  ? 

Many  wise  men  in  Europe  view  with  no  friendly  eye 
the  progress  of  knoAvledge  among  the  people.  They 
augur  no  good,  but  much  evil,  from  the  universal  spirit 
of  improvement  and  revolution  which  is  everywhere 
manifest.  They  anticipate  the  utter  subversion  of 
ancient  and  venerable  institutions,  and  the  probable 
prostration  of  all  order,  religion  and  government.  They 
dread  the  influence  of  the  schoolmaster  who  is  abroad, 
and  the  lessons  of  reform  which  he  dihgently  incul- 
cates. With  their  apprehensions  I  do  not  sympathize. 
But  with  us,  where  every  man  already  possesses  the 
elective  franchise  and  is  himself  eligible  to  office,  there 
remains  no  alternative,  but  either  to  submit  to  the 
government  of  an  ignorant  mass,  who  are  themselves 
controlled  by  knavish  demagogues,  or  to  give  instruc- 
tion to  that  omnipotent  mass  that  they  may  be  fitted 
to  govern,  or  to  exercise  the  right  of  choosing  our 
governors  in  a  judicious  and  independent  manner. 

A  little  learning,  it  has  been  said,  is  a  dangerous 
thing  :  and  so  it  is,  w^henever  it  is  mistaken  for  a  great 
deal.  And  here  is  the  danger  to  which  we  are  now  ex- 
posed. Popular  education  is  all  the  rage.  Very  well — 
I  am  an  advocate  of  popular  education.  I  will  go  as  far 
and  do  as  much  to  promote  popular  education  as  any 
man  in  the  commonwealth.  But  let  us  keep  in  view 
the  legitimate  ends  of  a  popular  education.  Is  it  to 
supersede  or  to  nuUify  every  other  species  of  education  ? 
Is  it  to  elevate  every  man  who  can  read  and  write,  to 


250  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

the  rank  and  dignity  of  a  dictator  in  the  body  politic  ? 
Is  it  to  convert  the  labourer  into  a  statesmen,  anti  the 
workshop  into  a  nursery  of  faction  and  discontent  ? 

A  vast  deal  of  pains  are  taking  by  certain  individuals 
in  various  parts  of  the  country,  to  operate  on  the  pas- 
sions and  prejudices  of  the  worl'ing  people,  as  they  are 
styled,  for  purposes  best  known  to  themselves. — As  if 
the  said  working  people  were  subjected  to  any  priva- 
tions, hardships  or  disabilities,  which  are  not  common  to 
every  class,  order  and  description  of  our  citizens.  When 
or  where,  since  the  foundation  of  our  Eepubhc,  has  a 
working  man  been  denied  a  single  j)rivilege  or  excluded 
from  a  single  office,  simply  because  he  was  a  working 
man  ?  Have  not  the  people  always  exercised  the  right 
of  judgment  and  of  suifrage  unrestricted  and  uncon- 
trolled ?  A  working  man  stands  on  precisely  the  same 
footing  with  every  other  man.  If  the  people  choose  to 
honour  him  with  their  confidence,  no  power  on  earth 
can  hinder  them.  Other  things  being  equal,  the  work- 
ing man — the  farmer — the  mechanic — has  the  chances 
decidedly  in  his  favour.  And  all  this  is  just  as  it  should 
be.  It  is  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  our  Constitu- 
tion— with  the  genius  of  republicanism  —  and  with  the 
character  of  all  our  institutions. 

But,  then,  the  mere  fact  of  being  a  working  man  does 
not  therefore  qualify  a  man  for  pubhc  office  or  entitle 
him  to  it.  He  may  be  a  good  blacksmith — and  as  a 
good  blacksmith,  be  a  very  respectable  and  meritorious 
citizen.  But,  assuredly,  because  he  is  a  good  blacksmith, 
it  does  not  follow  that  he  should  represent  his  district 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  251 

in  Congress  or  his  country  at  the  court  of  St.  J<aincs.  Tf, 
however,  in  addition  to  his  mechanical  skill,  or  in  spite 
of  the  disadvantages  of  his  position — if  by  extraordinary 
genius  and  persevering  application — he  should  acquire 
the  requisite  intellectual  qualifications,  then  he  may  and 
doubtless  Mdll  enact  the  honourable  part  of  a  Roger 
Sherman  or  of  a  Benjamin  Franklin  in  the  councils  of 
his  country  or  among  the  diplomatists  of  Europe.  But 
neither  Sherman  nor  Franklin  rose  from  obscurity  be- 
cause they  had  been  bred  mechanics ;  but  because  they 
nobly  cultivated  the  faculties  with  which  they  were 
gifted,  and  thus  created  for  themselves  a  path  to  future 
eminence.  And  the  same  path  to  glory  is  still  open  to 
every  aspiring  cottager's  son  in  our  land.  No  patrician 
blood  —  no  hereditary  wealth — no  family  influence  is 
necessary  to  ensure  success  to  any  youth  who  will 
submit  to  the  training  and  discipline  essential  to  the 
end  at  which  he  aims.  Ought  more  than  this  to  be 
coveted  or  conceded  ? 

Now,  a  common  school  education  will  not  do  this — 
Lyceum  lectures  will  not  do  this — no  system  of  instruc- 
tion designed  for  the  body  of  the  people  w^ill  do  this. 
They  ma}^  be  taught  enough  by  these  means  to  become 
more  useful  citizens,  more  skilful  farmers  and  mechanics, 
and  better  judges  of  public  men  and  of  public  measures. 
And  with  the  elements  of  knowledge,  thus  acquired, 
many  w^ill  advance  to  higher  attainments,  and  finally 
reach,  perhaps,  the  most  exalted  rank  of  intellectual 
culture  or  of  political  distinction. 

To  become  an  accomplished    statesman,   a  profound 


252  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

jurist,  or  an  erudite  scholar,  must  constitute  the  busi- 
ness of  life — whether  the  apprenticeship  be  served  at 
the  plough,  in  the  workshop,  or  in  the  college. 

Within  the  whole  range  of  moral  research,  religion, 
of  course,  must  ever  occupy  the  first  and  highest  rank. 
No  reflecting  person  can  be  indifferent  to  it.  Man  is  a 
religious  animal,  and  he  cannot,  if  he  would,  divest  him- 
self of  its  influence,  under  some  form  or  other.  Religion, 
like  civil  government,  has  ever  been  found  indispensable 
to  social  existence.  If  religion,  like  civil  government, 
were  left  to  the  option  of  human  wisdom  and  discre- 
tion;— still,  as  there  is  much  room  for  choice  among 
the  various  forms  of  civil  government  and  modes  of  ad- 
ministration, so  would  there  be  ample  scope  for  the  exer- 
cise of  judgment  in  selecting  from  among  the  numerous 
religions  in  our  world,  that  which,  on  the  whole,  is  best. 
In  this  view  of  the  subject,  it  is  probable  that  no  diver- 
sity of  opinion  would  exist  among  ourseh^s,  as  to  the 
particular  religion  that  should  be  adopted.  I  imagine 
that,  if  all  our  wise  statesmen  and  patriots  were  assem- 
bled in  general  congress,  to  choose  a  religion  for  their 
country,  they  would,  without  controversy  or  hesitation, 
vote  for  the  Christian  religion.  I  do  not  say,  for  any 
one  of  its  perverted  sectarian  forms,  but  for  simple  un- 
adulterated Christianity.  I  think  they  would  prefer  it 
to  Judaism  or  Mohammedanism,  or  to  an}'  species  of 
Paganism  or  modern  Illuminism.  If  so,  we  have  at 
least  as  cogent  reasons  in  behalf  of  Christianity,  as  we 
have  in  behalf  of  a  republican  government — to  the  ex- 
clusion of  all  others.      It  is  the  best  we  can  find.     We 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  253 

must  take  it,  or  be  content  with  a  worse.  For  with  no 
religion,  we  cannot  exist.  Since  then  a  religion  we  must 
and  will  have — and  since  the  Christian  religion  is  incom- 
parably the  best  ever  known — who  will,  who  can  honestly 
object  to  it  ? 

This  simple  view  of  the  subject  furnishes  also  no 
mean  a  priori  argument  in  favour  of  the  higher  and 
more  aAvful  claims  of  Christianity  to  the  faith  of  man- 
kind. It  is  the  best — and  therefore  most  likely  to  be 
true — to  be,  namely,  w^hat  it  purports  to  be,  a  revelation 
from  the  Deity. 

My  object,  however,  at  present,  is  not  to  argue  this  or 
any  other  matter.  It  is  merely  to  guard  you  against 
that  specious  sophistry  and  sluggish  incredulity  which 
too  often  check  or  preclude  all  serious  inquiry  at  the 
very  threshold,  and  leave  the  mind  forever  in  darkness, 
doubt  and  error.  Christianity  craves  no  aid  or  indul- 
gence from  human  ingenuity  or  from  human  Aveakness. 
There — in  the  Bible — lies  the  unsophisticated  record  of 
her  birth  and  character.  Examine  for  yourselves.  She 
has  had  her  enemies.  These  have  slandered  and  misre- 
presented her.  Listen  not  to  their  ex  parte  testimony. 
She  has  had  false  friends.  And  these  have  traitorously 
betrayed  her  cause,  and  perverted  her  noblest  attributes 
for  the  basest  purposes.  Be  not  deceived  by  their  plausi- 
ble glosses  or  dogmatical  interpretations. 

Distinguish  between  the  truth  and  excellency  of  Chris- 
tianity as  taught  by  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  and  the 
contradictory,  extravagant  and  absurd  exhibitions  of  it 
by  any  merely  human  teacher  or  authority  whatever. 


254  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

These  may  all  be  wrong ;  and  3- et  Christianity  may  be 
good  and  true  notwithstanding.  Much  infidelity,  no 
doubt,  has  arisen  from  a  superficial  glance  at  Chris- 
tianity, as  displayed  in  the  books,  creeds,  formularies, 
ceremonies,  temper  and  conduct  of  certain  Christian 
sects  and  individuals.  Even  the  ingenious  and  philo- 
sophical Hume  confessed  that  he  had  never  perused  the 
New  Testament  with  attention.  Probably,  most  living 
skeptics  would,  on  inquiry,  be  found  equally  ignorant. 
They  take  no  pains  to  separate  the  gold  from  the  dross 
—  the  reality  from  its  counterfeit.  They  look  at  the 
muddy  and  poisoned  streams,  but  never  ascend  to  the 
pure  and  living  fountain.  Whatever  appears  irrational, 
or  puerile,  or  degrading,  or  monstrous  in  Christian  tenets, 
rites  or  practice,  they  hastily  ascribe  to  the  Christian 
system ;  and  then  deliberately  sit  down  "  in  the  seat  of 
the  scornful" — as  if  the  question  were  settled  positively 
and  forever.  Be  not  seduced  by  such  an  example — 
however  exalted  may  be  their  station  or  their  talents. 
Their  procedure  is  as  preposterous,  as  it  may  prove  ruin- 
ous and  irretrievable. 

The  Bible,  of  course,  is  the  only  authentic  source  of 
information  respecting  Christian  truth.  It  never  can  be 
learned,  in  all  its  extent  and  genuine  spirit,  from  any 
human  author  or  from  any  living  teacher.  Nor  will  it 
ever  be  fully  discovered  hy  those  who  consult  the  Scrip- 
tures merely  or  chiefly  in  search  of  argument  to  sustain 
a  pre-conceived  system  of  theology — a  system  in  which 
they  may  have  been  educated — a  system  which  they 
may  have  bound  themselves,  by  the  most  solemn  vows. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  255 

to  inculcate — a  system  which  has  been  adopted,  and,  as 
it  were,  incorporated  with  their  habitual  thoughts,  feel- 
ings and  actions,  pre^  iouslj-  to  any  study  of  the  Bible 
whatever — a  system,  which,  instead  of  modestly  ap- 
proaching the  sacred  oracles  and  humbly  listening  to 
the  divine  response,  boldl}-  and  presumptuously  brings 
Heaven's  record  to  the  test  and  to  the  torture  of  its  own 
self-suflBcient,  infallible  and  despotic  tribunal. 

In  our  country  a  loud  and  angry  clamour  has  been 
recently  raised  against  Christian  ministers,  and  Chris- 
tian philanthropists,  and  Christian  efforts  to  spread  the 
gospel : — as  if  a  general  conspiracy  had  been  formed  to 
undermine  our  political  fabric  and  to  usurp  the  civi] 
government.  We  hear  much  about  priestcraft,  and  ec- 
clesiastical ambition,  and  religious  intolerance — whether 
w4th  or  without  reason,  I  shall  not  inquire.  I  entertain 
no  alarming  apprehensions  on  this  score,  from  any  sect, 
church,  or  party,  which  freely  gives  the  Bible  to  the 
people,  and  which  urges  upon  them  the  duty  of  studying 
it,  and  which  permits  them  to  exercise  their  own  judg- 
ment m  its  interpretation.  But  I  do  apprehend  danger 
from  the  enemies  of  the  Bible,  whether  avowed  or  secret, 
whether  infidel  or  Christian  in  name.  The  Bible  is 
either  true  or  false.  No  honest  man,  believing  it  true, 
could  in  conscience  withhold  it  from  the  people.  If 
false,  by  what  better  or  severer  test  can  it  be  tried  than 
the  ordeal  of  public  opinion?  Infidels,  if  candid  and 
sincere,  cannot  consistently  dread  its  influence  :  espe- 
cially as  they  do  not  impugn  its  moral  precepts,  or  pre- 
tend that  it  is  hostile  to  liberty  and  the  rights  of  man ; 


256  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

and  more  especially  as  it  does  not  come  in  competition 
with  the  higher  claims  of  any  other  rehgion  which  they 
would  offer  as  a  substitute. 

What  then  shall  we  say  of  an}'  class  or  denomination 
of  Christians,  who,  while  they  profess  to  reverence  the 
Bible,  as  their  own  standard  of  faith  and  practice,  do 
nevertheless  studiously  and  s^'stematically  refuse  it  to 
the  people,  as  too  profound  and  mysterious  for  their 
comprehension?  The  truth  is,  they  are  actuated  by 
selfish,  sinister,  sectarian  motives.  They  are  aware  that 
their  own  peculiar  craft  would  be  endangered, — that 
the  simple  purity  and  verity  of  the  gospel  would  be 
arrayed  against  all  their  hypocritical  pretensions, — and 
that  their  usurpations  over  the  consciences  and  under- 
standings of  the  people  would  be  uprooted  and  dissi- 
pated forever.  Are  there  any  such  Ghristians  in  our 
country? — And  do  they  prefer  accusations  of  dishonesty, 
intrigue,  bigotrj'  or  ambition  against  their  fellow-Chris- 
tians ?  Do  the}'  charge  the  friends  and  distributors  of 
the  Bible  with  the  foul  project  of  compassing  a  union  of 
Church  and  State  ?  If  there  be  such  men  among  us — 
and  if  they  be  actuated  by  such  a  spirit — we  venture  to 
lay  the  sin  and  the  danger,  of  which  they  complain,  at 
their  own  doors.  They  are  precisely  the  lurking,  in- 
sidious, Jesuitical  foes  to  Christianity  and  to  both  civil 
and  religious  liberty,  whom  our  real  patriots  have  most 
reason  to  dread  and  to  guard  against.  Their  actions 
and  their  dogmas  contradict  their  specious  declarations 
and  ostentatious  parade  of  zeal  in  the  sacred  cause  which 
they  affect  to  espouse. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  257 

Should  this  announcement,  hjpothetical  as  it  is,  be 
deemed  invidious  or  uncharitable,  —  I  beg  to  ask  my 
hearers  what  the}^  would  think  of  any  number  of 
American  statesmen,  who  should,  while  professing  to 
be  constitutional  republicans,  be  artfully  decrying  the 
Constitution,  and  disparaging  its  merits  and  sanctions, 
or  aiming  to  prevent  its  circulation  among  the  people : — 
or  who  should  declare  it  to  be  a  capital  crime,  like 
treason  or  murder,  for  any  man  to  read,  or  to  possess 
a  copy  of,  the  Constitution ;  or  who  should  insist  on 
their  exclusive  right,  at  all  times,  to  substitute  their 
own  commentary  or  interpretation  in  lieu  of  the  instru- 
ment itself;  or  to  issue  their  own  proclamation  as  the 
paramount  law  of  the  land  ?  Would  it  be  uncharitable 
to  doubt  whether  the  said  professing  constitutional  re- 
publicans were  truly  and  honestly  constitutional  repub- 
licans at  all  ?  Thus  much,  on  this  topic,  we  offer  in  self- 
defence.  We  have  ever  advocated  the  cause  of  libert}* 
and  the  Bible.  In  the  present  state  of  the  world,  w^e 
believe  the  cause  to  be  one  and  indivisible.  We  mean 
to  wrong  no  man  or  set  of  men.  The  case  supposed 
may  be  purely  fictitious — and  if  so,  our  application  and 
deductions  will  be  harmless  and  inoffensive. 

Young  men,  and  old  men  too,  are  exceedingly  credu- 
lous oftentimes  in  listening  to  the  tragic  story  of  Chris- 
tian enormities; — as  if  every  abomination  perpetrated 
under  the  Christian  name,  were  chargeable  to  Chris- 
tianit3\  And  because  a  spmimis  Christianity  has  been 
for  ages  lording  it  over  the  world — proudly  seated  upon 
the  throne  of  empire,  and  controlling  the  policy  and  the 

VOL.  I.  IT 


258  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

destinies  of  nations — they  therefore  infer  that  gemiine 
Christianity  must  also  be  ever  seeking  after  political 
supremacy. 

True  it  is,  religion  has  been  and  still  is  interwoven 
with  the  civil  polity  of  all  nations  upon  our  globe,  with 
only  one  exception.  All  governments,  ancient  and 
modern,  Jewish,  Pagan,  Mohammedan,  (and  even  Chris- 
tian since  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,)  had  and 
have  their  religious  establishments.  And  all  religions, 
except  the  Christian,  seem  naturally  and  necessarily  to 
enter  into  the  very  essence  and  structure  of  the  govern- 
ments which  sustain  and  protect  them.  But  here  we 
take  our  stand,  and  peremptorily  challenge  the  universe 
to  produce  an  instance  of  any  other  rehgion  besides  the 
Christian,  which  has  ever  obtained  a  permanent  exist- 
ence among  men,  mthout  the  aid  of  human  government 
—  of  the  sceptre  or  the  sword.  No  such  case  can  be 
cited. 

Be  it  known  then  —  and  let  the  calumniators  of  the 
gospel  blush  while  they  are  constrained  to  admit  the 
fact — that,  when  the  Christian  religion  was  first  promul- 
gated, it  disclaimed  and  rejected  all  State  alliances.  In- 
stead of  courting  the  smiles  and  patronage  of  any  earthly 
potentate,  it  boldly  met  the  frowns  and  hostility  of  every 
government  under  heaven.  Silent  and  suffering,  patient 
and  forbearing,  charitable  and  unassuming,  self-denying 
and  unambitious,  it  advanced  in  tlie  popular  favour  by 
its  own  native  beauty  and  intrinsic  excellence,  by  the 
energy  of  truth  and  love,  by  the  faithful  and  benevolent 
labours,  under  God,  of  its  own  devoted  and  disinterested 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  259 

advocates.  It  encountered  national  Judaism  in  Pales- 
tine, and  national  Paganism  throughout  the  rest  of  the 
world.  For  three  long  centuries,  it  sustained  the  unmi- 
tigated and  malignant  assaults  of  philosophy,  learning, 
wit,  pride,  power  and  superstition.  When  a  majority  of 
the  people  had  declared  in  its  favour,  the  politic  Con- 
stantine  became  its  champion  and  protector;  and  artful!}- 
adopted  it  as  the  State  religion,  instead  of  heathenism, 
which,  until  then,  had  constituted  part  and  parcel  of  the 
imperial  code,  as  it  had  previously  done  of  the  republi- 
can and  regal  systems,  up  to  the  days  of  Numa  and 
Romulus. 

Here  then,  ancient  usage  was  followed  —  the  usage, 
namely,  of  Pagan  Rome.  Her  emperor  had  been  the 
head  and  hierophant  of  her  religion  and  her  temples ; 
and  he  was  not  the  personage  to  divest  himself  volun- 
tarily of  any  of  his  inherited  or  acquired  prerogatives. 
His  courtiers  too  were  as  pliant  and  obsequious  as  cour- 
tiers, at  all  times,  are  wont  to  be.  Had  every  Christian 
bishop  in  the  empire  denied  his  right  to  rule  the  church, 
and  protested  against  this  spiritual  usurpation ;  still,  the 
master  of  the  world  would  have  been  at  no  loss  for 
instruments  to  effect  his  designs.  The  priests  of  Jupiter 
— dignified  Roman  Senators — ambitious  aspirants  of  any 
name  or  rank — would  have  eagerly  assumed  the  crosier 
and  the  mitre,  and  discharged,  with  becoming  gravity, 
the  prescribed  functions  of  their  now  exalted  and  pow- 
erful order.  Princes  can,  at  pleasure,  manufacture 
orthodox  tools  out  of  unprincipled  sycophants.  And 
no  doubt,  at  that  period,  there  were  enough  of  the  right 


260.  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

stamp,  within  the  pale  of  the  visible  Christian  church,  to 
meet  the  demand. 

From  the  reign  of  Constantine  dovm.  to  the  present 
day,  the  Christian  religion,  in  some  form  or  other,  has 
been  incorporated  with  the  civil  government,  or  esta- 
blished by  law,  in  every  Christian  land,  with  the  solitary 
exception  of  our  own  Republic.  History,  I  repeat,  does 
not  record  another  exception  :  nor  can  another  be  found 
in  our  world  at  this  moment.*  Genuine  religious  liberty 
has  never  been  enjoyed  in  any  other  country.  The  very 
acme  of  modern  attainment,  even  in  enlightened  Chris- 
tian Europe,  is  only  a  species  of  ill-natured,  stinted, 
grudging,  jealous,  extorted  toleration  of  dissenterism. 
If  persecuting  bigotry  no  longer  celebrates  its  acts  of 
faith,  or  lights  the  fires  of  martyrdom,  or  fills  with  vic- 
tims the  cells  of  its  inquisitorial  dungeons,  it  is  because 
it  clgres  not.  And  pray,  why  not  dare  to  do  nou'  what 
Constantine,  and  all  his  successors  in  Church  and  State, 
for  some  twelve  or  fifteen  centuries,  did  not  scruple  to 
perform  ?  It  is  because  the  people  are  reading  the  Bible, 
and  unlearning  the  cruel  and  slavish  dogmas  of  worldly 
domineering  hierarchs.  Wherever  the  Bible  has  had 
unchecked  circulation,  there  the  demon  of  persecution 
has  become  comparatively  powerless.  Let  Britain  and 
Spain,  in  contrast,  serve  for  proof  and  comment. 

Is  it  possible,  then,  that  the  advocates  of  the  Bible 
can  be  plotting  against  the  liberties  of  their  country, 
while  in  the  very  act  of  dispensing  to  the  people  the 

*  France,  perhaps,  excepted,  since  the  revolution  of  July,  1830. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  261 

New  Testament,  wliicli  is  the  most  perfect  charter  and 
guarantee  of  human  rights,  ever  yet  contrived  by  man 
or  bestowed  by  Heaven?  Let  Mr.  Jefferson  speak  to 
this  point.  Christianity  is,  says  he,  "a  reUgion  of  all 
others  most  friendly  to  Uberty,  science,  and  the  freest 
expansion  of  the  human  mind  —  when  brought  to  the 
original  purity  and  simplicity  of  its  benevolent  insti- 
tutor." 

The  American  people,  before  and  at  the  period  of  the 
Eevolution,  were  better  acquainted  with  the  Bible,  pro- 
bably, than  any  other  nation.  This  fact  may,  in  part, 
account  for  their  devotion  to  the  cause  of  liberty  and 
independence ;  whilst  the  neighbouring  French  colonies 
of  the  Canadas,  among  whom  the  Bible  was  compara- 
tively unknown,  adhered  to  the  government  of  the 
mother  country.  And,  for  the  same  reason,  I  suppose, 
it  may  be  announced,  without  breach  of  charity,  and  in 
strict  accordance  with  historic  verity,  that,  among  Pro- 
testant Christians  universally,  juster  notions  of  liberty 
are  entertained  and  exemplied  in  practice,  than  among 
Roman  Catholic  Christians.  If  the  fact  be  not  so, — 
(not,  indeed,  in  reference  to  eminently  enlightened  and 
gifted  individuals,  but  to  nations  and  the  body  of  the 
people  generally,) — I  shall  cheerfully  reject  the  infer- 
ence drawn  from  it. 

But,  we  are  told,  priests  covet  power.  —  That  they 
Avould  all  be  popes  if  they  could.  —  That  they  are  as 
ambitious  as  Caesar,  and  when  they  cannot  be  first  in 
Eome,  they  strive  to  become  first  in  a  village. — That, 
if  the  most  aspiring   among  them   cannot  attain  their 


262  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

object  in  any  existing  church,  or  become  the  leaders  of 
existing  sects,  thc}^  forthwith  set  up  for  themselves,  be- 
come the  apostles  of  a  new  doctrine,  and  the  generals  of 
a  new  army  in  the  church  militant.  This  charge,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  may  be  well  founded,  for  aught  I 
know  to  the  contrary. 

I  think  it  may,  with  more  truth  however,  be  affirmed, 
as  it  has  been,  that  "the  grand  pursuit  of  priests,  as  of 
all  other  bodies  of  men,  is  power ;  and  that  their  pecu- 
liar object  is  power  over  the  belief  of  men," — which,  of 
course,  includes  or  ensures  every  other  sort  of  power.  I 
here  distinguish  between  personal  ambition,  and  the 
ambition  of  a  body  or  order  of  men.  Between  the  sinrit 
of  corps  [esprit  de  corps^  and  individual  interest.  The 
individual  may  be  perfectly  honest  and  disinterested,  so 
far  as  he  is  himself  directly  concerned,  and  yet  be  blindty 
and  absolutely  devoted  to  the  systematic  advancement 
and  elevation  of  his  own  particular  fraternity  or  profes- 
sion. This  ambitious  self- aggrandizing  spirit  is  as  cha- 
racteristic of  lawyers,  physicians,  tradesmen,  merchants, 
and  other  bodies  of  men,  as  it  is  of  priests — though  not 
so  oljjectionable  or  dangerous  in  the  former  as  in  the 
latter.  And  what  is  remarkable,  a  numerous  body  or 
corporation  of  men  will  steadily  and  ardently  pursue  a 
system  of  measures  to  effect  their  favourite  object,  which 
not  one  of  them  would  resort  to  or  justify  for  his  own 
special  benefit.  Thus  it  is  that  the  religious  sects  in  our 
country,  with  probably  few  exceptions,  are  labouring  to 
augment  their  respective  numbers,  wealth,  power  and 
influence;  —  and    by   means   too,    oftentimes,    which   a 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  263 

private  Christian  would  be  asliamecl,  in  his  own  ease, 
to  employ  or  openly  to  approve.  It  is  precisely  from 
this  irresponsible  spirit  of  professional  or  sectarian  am- 
bition— as  distinct  from  personal  or  individual  am])ition 
— that  some  good  men  augur  peril  to  our  civil  liberties, 
or,  at  least,  to  our  domestic  tranquillity;  and,  at  any 
rate,  to  all  the  generous  and  ennobling  charities  of  genu- 
ine Christianity. 

"When  I  witness  the  strifes,  the  controversies,  the  mu- 
tual jealousies  and  recriminations  of  opposing  rival 
sects,  I  am  constrained  to  ask,  what  might  not  result, 
should  any  one  of  these  gain  the  ascendency,  after  years 
of  angry,  embittered  and  furious  conflict?  For  a  ma- 
jority, be  it  remembered,  icUl  govern.  And  a  majority 
of  religionists  of  any  name  w^iatever,  if  sufficiently  large 
and  powerful,  united  and  determined,  reckless  and  un- 
principled, or  ignorant,  deluded  and  head-strong,  can 
do  what  they  please  —  can  alter  the  Constitution  —  can 
demolish  the  government — can  establish  Judaism,  or 
Paganism,  or  Deism,  or  Atheism,  or  Romanism,  or 
Quakerism,  or  Episcopacy,  or  Presbytery. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  several  sects  are  now  Ijoldly 
striving  to  organize  sectarian  seminaries  of  education, 
of  all  gradations,  in  everj^  part  of  the  country,  in  order 
(say  their  enemies)  to  exert  i\\Q  greatest  possible  influ- 
ence upon  the  rising  generation.  We  see  them  every- 
where issuing  sectarian  newspapers  and  journals,  which, 
while  they  profess  to  be  exclusively  religious,  do  not  fail 
(say  their  enemies  again)  to  exhibit  their  own  political 
temper  and  predilections,  on  all  convenient  occasions. 


264  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

And  Ave  may,  (continue  their  accusers,)  ere  long,  see 
them  mingling  directly  in  all  the  party  political  agita- 
tations  of  the  day,  and  becoming  important  engines  in 
our  popular  elections.  It  is  an  easy  matter  to  give  to 
every  political  measure  a  religious  aspect.  Not  a  ques- 
tion can  he  agitated  in  any  legislative  assembly  but  may 
be  associated  with  religion.  Every  measure  will  be 
deemed  riglit,  and  therefore  religious,  by  its  advocates — 
while  the  same  measure  will  be  denounced  as  wrong,  and 
therefore  anti-religious,  by  its  opponents.  The  most  in- 
different question  imaginable  is  capable,  in  this  way,  of 
being  presented  to  the  people  as  a  religious  question. 
Such  was  the  actual  state  of  the  Christian  world,  only  a 
few  centuries  ago,  when  every  principle  or  question  in 
politics,  in  morals,  in  science  and  philosophy,  was  matter 
of  religion,  and  subject  to  ecclesiastical  regulation. 

No  feeling,  sentiment  or  passion  is  so  strong  and  un- 
controllable as  religious  passion ;  and,  in  the  bosoms  of 
the  ignorant  unreflecting  multitude,  it  usually  amounts 
to  phrensy.  Candidates  for  office,  in  such  a  season  of 
religious  ferment,  will,  of  course,  put  themselves  at  the 
head  of  one  or  another  of  the  dominant  sects.  A 
majority  of  some  one  sect  may  thus  eventually  prevail 
in  the  State  and  National  Legislatures — and  then  the 
government  virtually  falls  into  their  hands — and  then, 
who  shall  check  or  restrain  them,  when  the  people  them- 
selves have  become  their  abettors  and  coadjutors?  Sup- 
pose a  large  majority  of  the  citizens  of  Tennessee  were 
zealous  aspiring  Jews — would  not  all  the  offices  in  the 
State  be  speedily  filled  by  Jews  ?     And  if  this  were  the 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  265 

case  throughout  the  Union,  would  not  ever}'  officer  of 
the  Federal  Government  be,  of  course,  a  Jew?  And 
what  should  hinder  them,  if  so  disposed,  from  establish- 
ing by  law,  the  Mosaic  ritual  and  Temple  worship  as 
the  religion  of  the  nation  ?  The  name  being  changed, 
the  argument  is  equall}'  applicable  to  any  Christian  de- 
nomination. Nor  would  the  prospect  be  in  the  least 
brightened  by  substituting  infidelity  for  Christianity. 
All  the  evils  now  contemplated  have  hitherto  proceeded 
from  mfidel  Christianity  or  Christian  infidelit}' .  For,  in 
the  garb  and  under  the  guise  of  Christianity,  infidelity 
has  perpetrated  deeds  of  cruelty  and  madness  which 
Paganism  might  blush  at. 

Infidelit}'  too,  in  its  own  proper  character,  has  been 
equally  intolerant,  bigoted,  persecuting  and  ambitious, 
whenever  it  has  had  a  theatre  for  action.  Infidelity 
may  aspire  to  the  mitre  or  triple  crown,  in  one  age  or 
country — and  in  another,  erect  altars  to  the  goddess  of 
reason,  and  exterminate  all  who  refuse  to  offer  incense 
to  its  idols.  There  are,  no  doubt,  infidels  in  our  coun- 
try, who,  to  gain  political  power,  w^ould  either  court  a 
religious  part}^,  or  denounce  any  and  all  religious  sects, 
just  as  the  popular  sentiment  might  happen  to  be  pro- 
pitious to  the  one  course  or  the  other.  Had  Frederick 
the  Great  been  as  pious  or  superstitious  as  James  the 
Second,  his  host  of  literary  parasites  would  have  been 
as  religious  in  appearance,  as  they  were  infidel  in  heart. 
Unprincipled  men  never  hesitate  about  names  or  means. 
Our  liberties  ma}-  be  abridged  or  cloven  down  under  a 
Christian  or  infidel   pretext — by  the  orthodox  or  the 


266  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

heterodox  —  by  the  Puritan  or  the  liberal  —  by  the 
Catholic  or  the  Protestant — whenever  the  'people  shall 
be  prepared  to  rallj^  around  the  standard  of  any  despe- 
rate adventurer — hut  not  till  then. 

Thus  far  I  have  merely  traced  to  its  natural  conse- 
quences, the  tendency  of  all  religious  party  spirit,  when 
acting  strongly  upon  the  popular  mind.  If  there  be 
danger  in  the  case,  as  has  been  proclaimed  and  reite- 
rated by  a  thousand  pens  and  tongues — or  if  there  be 
no  danger  whatever — and  I  leave  others  to  judge — the 
argument,  as  addressed  to  the  people,  proves  invincibly, 
that,  in  order  to  avert  the  danger,  or  to  be  assured  that 
no  danger  threatens,  they  must  become  sufficiently  en- 
lightened and  wary  to  be  above  the  arts  and  beyond  the 
reach  of  any  insidious  traitor  or  canting  hypocrite. 

In  our  country,  all  religions  are  equally  favoured  and 
protected  by  the  Constitution  and  laws.  Not  a  shadow 
of  preference  is  shown  to  any  one  over  the  rest.  The 
rights  of  conscience  are  secured  to  all  men  without  dis- 
tinction. Here  there  is  perfect  equality.  The  Consti- 
tution speaks  not  of  toleratimi.  Toleration  is  a  term 
unknown  to  our  codes.  Dissenters  and  heretics  we  can- 
not have  among  us.  Nor  has  any  legal  tribunal  the 
authority  to  arraign  or  harass  or  question  any  mortal  on 
account  of  his  creed  or  mode  of  worship.  All  religious 
sects  stand  on  precisely  the  same  footing.  They  are 
equally  orthodox  and  equally  respectable  in  the  eye  of 
the  law.  This  being  the  fact,  what  right  have  the  seve- 
ral sects  to  abuse,  asperse,  and  anathematize  one  an- 
other?     What    right    has   one   sect   to   denounce   and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  267 

unchurch  another  sect?  What  right  has  one  church, 
professing  to  reverence  the  Bible,  to  pronounce  another 
church,  equally  acknowledging  the  Bible,  as  its  stand- 
ard, to  be  unchristian  or  heretical?  Or  what  right  has 
either  to  reprobate  the  other  as  aiming  at  an  ecclesiasti- 
cal establishment?  When  the  fiinrit  of  both  is  the  same: 
and  the  spirit  would,  if  it  could,  create  a  despotism  over 
both  Church  and  State. 

What  right  has  any  preacher  of  the  gospel  to  inveigh 
against  the  absent  and  unoffending  members  of  another 
sect — to  assail  their  principles  and  their  motives — and 
to  render  them  as  odious  to  his  own  people  as  possibly 
he  can  ?  Whence  did  he  learn  his  lessons  of  charity 
and  meekness — or  acquire  that  moral  courage  which 
prompts  him  to  say  of  his  fellow-Christians  puljlicly  and 
collectively  what  he  would  not  dare  to  utter,  in  a  private 
circle,  of  any  one  of  them  individually  and  by  name  ?  Is 
he  specially  privileged  to  infringe  the  Constitution  of  his 
country  and  the  gospel  of  peace — to  deal  out  slander  by 
the  wholesale  —  and,  with  impunity,  to  libel  his  neigh- 
bours by  the  thousand  ?  If  the  common  tale-bearer,  the 
vulgar  tea-table  gossip,  the  officious  retailer  of  village 
scandal,  is  universally  despised — -if  the  malignant  ca- 
lumniator, the  deliberate  unprovoked  slanderer,  is  liable 
to  severe  legal  pains  and  penalties — what  shall  be  said 
of  the  puny,  arrogant,  inflated,  self-sufficient  zealot,  who, 
from  the  pulpit,  hurls  his  poisoned  shafts,  Sunday  after 
Sunday,  against  his  brethren,  the  followers,  it  may  be, 
of  another  shepherd,  just  as  wise,  liberal  and  infallible 
as  himself?     No  species  of  persecution  is  so  vexatious, 


258  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

exasperating  and  injurious,  as  that  which  fastens  a  bad 
name  upon  its  victims.  The  law  of  libel  and  defama-' 
tion  ought  to  reach  the  pulpit  as  Avell  as  the  private 
domicil. 

A  preacher,  undoubtedly,  has  the  right  to  promulgate 
whatever  doctrines,  or  to  inculcate  whatever  lessons  he 
pleases,  or  whatever  his  church  or  party  may  require. 
But  he  is  not  the  keeper  of  other  men's  consciences,  nor 
the  judge  of  their  actions — of  those,  I  mean,  who  do  not 
appertain  to  his  own  flock  or  sect.  Besides,  he  is  never 
candid  when  he  enters  upon  controversial  ground.  He 
never  deals  fairly  with  those  whose  tenets  he  oppugns. 
He  bears  false  witness  against  his  neighbour.  I  have 
seldom  heard  from  the  pulpit  a  just  representation  of  any 
sect  which  it  was  the  design  of  the  preacher  to  attack  or 
to  criminate.  Nor  have  I  ever  read,  in  any  polemical 
treatise,  a  full  and  impartial  account  of  the  sentiments 
or  practice  of  the  party  which  it  was  the  object  of  the 
author  to  confute,  expose  or  write  down. 

I  am  willing  that  all  sects  should  manage  their  own 
affairs  in  their  own  way,  and  within  their  own  legitimate 
spheres.  That  they  should  believe  what  they  please, 
and  employ  as  much  spiritual  terrorism,  as  they  deem  ex- 
pedient, among  their  own  voluntary  disciples  and  asso- 
ciates. I  leave  them  where  the  Constitution  has  placed 
them.  Let  them  never  pass  the  boundaries  of  their 
own  spiritual  territories,  nor  invade  another's  dominion. 
Let  them  learn  to  treat  each  other  with  courtesy  and 
Christian  charity — with  that  "charity  which  suftereth 
long,  and  is  kind ;  which  envieth  not ;  which  vaunteth 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 


209 


not  itself,  and  is  not  pnfted  up.— Which  sceketh  not  her 
own,  is  not  easily  provoked,  thinketh  no  evil :  rejoiceth 
not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  in  the  truth  ;— Which  bear- 
eth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things, 
endureth  all  things. " 

If  I  believe  my  neighbour,  or  any  entire  sect,  to  be 
living  in  darkness  and  error— such  as  must,  in  my  opin- 
ion, endanger  their  salvation— I  may  go  to  him  or  them, 
and  endeavour  kindly  to  enlighten,  convince,  reclaim 
and  save  them.  But  assuredly,  as  a  minister  of  the  gos- 
pel of  reconciliation  and  good-will  to  men,  I  cannot  pre- 
sume to  stigmatize  them,  unheard,  and  by  me  certainly 
never  warned  or  instructed,  as  heretics,  infidels  or  hypo- 
crites. I  cannot  ridicule,  traduce,  insult,  or  affect  to 
despise  them.  I  cannot  hate,  and  therefore  seek  to  tor- 
ment and  destroy  them,  soul  and  body,  in  time  and 
throughout  eternity.     I  would  not  treat  a  heathen  thus 

even  were  he  a  Nero  or  a  Domitian — and  shall  I  thus 

act  towards  my  Christian  brother?— who,  perhaps,  after 
all,  (if  the  scene  were  laid  in  Britain,)  differs  from  me 
only  in  having  been  born  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the 
Tweed,  and  in  having  been  educated  in  a  different  Pro- 
testant National  Church— while  both  his  church  and 
mine  may  be  recognized  as  orthodox,  and  be  equally 
protected  and  cherished  by  the  same  common  civil  go- 
vernment—and both  acknoAvledge  the  same  sovereign 
as  their  temporal  and  spiritual  head. 

But  am  I  individually,  or  is  my  church  wantonly  as- 
saulted, misrepresented,  calumniated— may  I  not  retort 
wdth  equal  severity,  and  not  merely  repel  the  charge, 


270  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

but  render  evil  for  evil,  slander  for  slander,  carry  the 
war  home  into  the  enemy's  camp,  and  do  him  all  the 
injury  in  my  power  ?  No,  I  may  not.  My  master  has 
taught  a  different  lesson — "Blessed  are  ye  when  men 
shall  revile  you,  and  persecute  you,  and  shall  say  all 
manner  of  evil  against  you  falsely  for  my  sake."  He 
has  left  us  an  example  of  patient  suffering,  which  we 
are  commanded  to  follow : — "who,  when  he  was  reviled, 
reviled  not  again;  when  he  suffered,  he  threatened  not; 
but  committed  himself  to  him  that  judge th  righteously." 
In  my  remarks  upon  the  legal  equality  of  all  religious 
sects,  and  upon  the  charitable  spirit  which  ought  to  cha- 
racterize their  mutual  intercourse,  I  have  not  intended 
to  intimate  that  there  is  no  reasonable  ground  of  choice 
or  preference  among  them — nor  that  they  are  all  equally 
right  or  equally  wrong — nor  that  it  is  immaterial  which 
should  prevail  —  nor  to  designate  which  it  would  be 
wisest  and  safest  to  encourage.  These  are  matters 
which  I  would  not  presume  to  decide  for  any  man. 
"Were  I  asked  for  an  opinion  in  tlie  case,  I  would  refer 
the  inquirer  to  the  Bible,  as  the  only  sure  guide  to  enable 
him  to  judge  of  the  temper  and  claims  of  any  sect  what- 
ever. He  could  not  greatly  err  in  associating  with  any 
Christian  church,  which  practises  Christian  charity,  and 
which  arrogates  no  powers  inconsistent  with  Christian 
liberty,  and  which  acknowledges  no  standard  of  ultimate 
appeal  but  the  Christian  Scriptures.  I  have  already  said 
that  I  fear  no  serious  evil  from  any  sect  (except  the  seo- 
tarian  spirit,  upon  which  I  have  animadverted,)  which 
freely  permits,    or    rather   directs   every  individual   to 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  271 

"search  the  Scriptures."  I  give  my  hand  cordially  to 
any  man,  bearing  the  Christian  name  and  exhibiting  the 
Christian  temper  and  character,  who  is  willing  and  anx- 
ious to  put  into  the  hands  of  all  the  people  the  written 
CONSTITUTION  of  the  great  Christian  Republic.  About 
minor  points  I  will  not  contend.  And  while  I  claim  the 
liberty  to  understand  and  interpret  the  Scriptures  as  best 
I  can,  I  cheerfully  concede  the  same  liberty  to  all  others. 

The  people,  if  capable  of  reading  and  understanding, 
will  soon  learn  from  the  Bible  to  distinguish  between 
the  ambitious  zealot  or  spiritual  demagogue,  and  the 
honest  minister  of  truth  and  righteousness.  They  will 
learn  that  the  religion  of  Him  "whose  kmgdom  is  not 
of  this  world,"  needs  not  the  strong  arm  of  any  civil 
government  to  enforce  its  claims.  That  all  intolerance, 
superstition,  bigotry  and  persecution  are  forbidden  by 
its  very  letter  and  by  its  universal  spirit.  That  no 
human  tribunal  has  a  right  to  control  the  thoughts  and 
the  opmions  of  men,  or  to  coerce  and  regulate  the 
conscience.  That  pharisaism,  sectarism,  churchism,  is  a 
very  different  affair  from  genuine  Christianity.  That  to 
"  contend  earnestly  for  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints,"  does  not  mean  to  fight,  torture,  hang  or  burn 
men  for  the  orthodoxy  of  any  human  church,  or  of  any 
ecclesiastical  dictator,  or  of  any  adventurous  reformer. 

They  will  learn,  that  the  most  noxious  heresy  is 
uncharitableness ;  and  that  the  worst  enemy  to  pure 
Christianity  is  sectarian  ambition. 

They  will  learn,  that  not  one  of  the  creeds  of  any  ex- 
isting church  is  formally  and  explicitly  prescribed  in  the 


272  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

gospel,  and  therefore  cannot  claim  either  to  supersede 
the  gospel,  or  to  constrain  any  mortal  to  believe,  or 
assent  to,  what  lie  cannot  find  in  the  gospel. 

They  will  discover,  that  no  precise  forms  of  worship 
or  of  ecclesiastical  government  are  enjoined  by  the  great 
Master  himself — and  therefore  that  none  of  them  can 
have  exclusive  preference  or  dominion,  any  further  than 
as  voluntary  associations  may  have  adopted  them.  That 
great  diversity  in  matters  of  indifference  or  of  mere 
expediency — in  externals,  in  forms,  rites  and  usages — 
may  accord  with  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  charity  which 
the  gospel  uniformly  inculcates.  And  therefore  ought 
never  to  be  made  the  ground  of  schism,  or  of  mutual 
hostility  and  excommunication. 

They  will  learn,  that  practice  is  the  only  sure  test  of 
orthodoxy  or  of  personal  religion.  That  the  tree  may 
always  be  kno^^^l  by  its  fruits.  That  man  can  judge 
of  his  fellow-men  only  by  their  lives — by  their  daily 
habitual  temper  and  conduct,  walk  and  conversation. 
And  whenever  this  grand  fundamental  truth  in  Chris- 
tian ethics  shall  universally  prevail, — there  will  be  an 
end  of  short-sighted,  illiberal,  persecuting,  ambitious,  in- 
quisitorial sectarism  and  priestcraft. 

Let  the  Bible,  then,  go  to  the  people,  without  note  or 
comment.  And  we  shall  no  longer  dread  the  influence 
of  missionaries  and  preachers,  whether  male  or  female. 
Christian  or  heathen,  native  or  foreign — nor  the  machi- 
nations of  priests  or  infidels,  of  alamiists  or  fanatics,  of 
any  sect,  name  or  party. 

If  I  have  wearied  my  audience  with  this  lengthened 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  273 

discutssioii  of  a  tlicme  not  strictly  classical,  and  perhaps, 
to  most  persons,  not  very  interesting,  I  mnst  find  my 
apology,  not  merely  in  the  intrinsic  importance  of  the 
subject  itself,  but  chiefly  in  the  extraordinary  excite- 
ment of  the  public  mind  generally  in  regard  to  some 
of  its  features  and  bearings. 

Religion  pure  and  undefiled,  and  its  abuse  and  perver- 
sion, are  totally  different  matters ;  and  yet  they  are  too 
often  and  too  easily  confounded,  both  by  the  crafty  and 
the  ignorant — and  by  none  more  fearlessly  than  by  viva- 
cious youth.  To  draw  the  line  of  distinction  clearly, 
and  to  remove  this  prima  facie  and  most  insidious  ob- 
jection to  Christianity,  I  supposed  would  be  rendering  a 
valuable  service  to  my  worthy  pupils,  at  the  moment  of 
their  entrance  upon  the  wide  theatre  of  action  and  of 
danger,  which  now  awaits  them,  and  which  will  soon 
command  all  their  talents  and  all  their  energies. 

I  have  freely  admitted  and  exposed  the  prominent 
evils,  incident  to  human  frailty  in  the  management  of 
religious  affairs ;  and  I  have  pointed  out,  what  appears 
to  me,  the  only  certain  and  permanent  remedy.  The 
odious  usurpations  of  priestcraft,  I  have  not  spared. 
Nor  have  I  been  indulgent  to  the  obliquities  and  the 
sinister  policy  of  the  sectarian  spirit  wherever  it  obtains. 
To  this  spirit  I  have  shown  no  favour;  while  I  have 
carefully  abstained  from  all  censure,  either  of  particular 
sects  or  of  particular  individuals.  And  candour  compels 
me  here  to  add  my  testimony  to  the  general  integrity 
and  benevolence  of  the  great  body  of  our  clergy,  of  all 
denominations,  who  adhere  to  the  Bible.     A  more  faith- 

VflT,     T.  18 


274  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

fill  find  devoted  ministry  of  the  gos23el,  I  verity  believe 
cannot  be  found  in  any  country.  Of  their  disposition  to 
effect  a  union  of  Church  and  State,  I  solemnly  aver  that 
I  know  nothing.  In  the  course  of  my  life,  I  have  not 
heard  a  syllable  from  any  clergyman,  in  private  or  in 
public,  from  the  pulpit  or  the  press,  which  could  be  con- 
strued or  tortured  as  indicative  of  any  such  purpose. 
And  if  there  be  one  such  disguised  enemy  of  liberty  and 
the  gospel ;  I  doubt  if  he  has  dared  to  utter  his  senti- 
ments, even  in  a  whisper,  to  his  dearest  friend.  He 
would  not  be  tolerated  in  any  company,  or  by  any 
party,  which  professes  to  respect  the  Bible,  and  which 
is  willing  to  be  judged  by  the  Bible.  From  my  earliest 
youth  to  this  day,  I  have  heard  from  clergymen  but  one 
opinion  on  this  sul^ject — and  that  is,  a  decided  reproba- 
tion of  all  religious  establishments.  And  were  any 
political  or  unchristian  party  to  attempt  to  bring  about 
a  union  of  Church  and  State;  or,  in  other  words,  to 
usurp  dominion  over  the  conscience — I  feel  assured  that 
the  clergy  would  be  the  first  to  rise  in  arms  against  such 
a  project. 

Still,  notwithstanding  this  explicit  declaration,  I  re- 
tract nothing  that  I  have  advanced.  And  all  history, 
and  the  known  character  of  human  nature,  warrant  the 
justice  of  my  animadversions  and  inferences.  The 
blind,  obstinate,  overbearing,  supercilious,  aspiring  spirit 
of  sectarism  is  ever  to  be  feared,  and  must  be  closely 
and  vigilantly  watched,  to  prevent  the  consequences  to 
which  it  naturally  tends.  This  must  be  done  with 
good  sense,  judgment,  discretion,  mildness,  and  thorough 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSFS.  275 

knowledge  and  discriniination  — lest  religion  itself  be 
overAvlielmed  in  the  ruins  wliicli  the  madness  of  jea- 
lousy and  alarm  might  occasion.  Intelligence  and  the 
Bible,  universally  diffused  among  the  people,  alone  will 
preserve  us  from  both  extremes. 

The  signs  of  the  times,  assuredl}-,  are  not  propitious 
either  to  dispassionate  inquiry  or  to  political  integrity. 
Nor  is  it  strange  that  the  cause  of  true  religion  should 
be  involved  in  the  rude  assaults  made  upon  its  outworks, 
or  endangered  by  the  indiscriminate  abuse  heaped  upon 
its  imprudent  or  false-hearted  supporters.     Still,  we  are 

iVee and  our  unparalleled  Constitution  is  still  worth 

defending.  We  are  religious  still — and  the  Bible  of 
eternal  truth  will  forever  command  the  veneration  and 
the  faith  of  all  conscientious  reflecting  men.  The 
whirlwinds  of  party  fury  and  religious  fanaticism  will 
subside.  The  true  patriot,  the  enlightened  politician, 
the  common  sense  moralist,  the  guileless  Christian  ad- 
vocate, will  A-et  be  heard  Avith  respect  by  the  people.  I 
do  not  despair  of  the  Republic.  Nor  do  I  despair  of  the 
gospel  of  charity  and  salvation. 

The  Republic  and  the  gospel  demand  your  vows  of 
eternal  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  their  sacred  cause. 
Live  and  die  for  your  country,  and  for  that  holy  reli- 
gion, whose  author  is  God,  and  whose  aim  is  universal 
peace,  liberty  and  happiness. 

Our  aged  and  venerable  sires — all  who  now  direct  the 
afl\\irs  of  Church  and  State— must  soon  pass  away  from 
this  busy  scene,  and  give  place  to  another  generation. 
You,  my  young  friends,  in  common  with  your  contem- 


276  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

poraries,   will   occup}'   their   stations,    and   control   the 
destinies  of  your  countrj-. 

That  you  may  live  long,  honoured  and  beloved,  use- 
ful and  happy — that,  when  full  of  years  and  mature  in 
piety,  you  maj'  behold  the  youth  of  another  age  more 
enlightened,  patriotic  and  virtuous  than  their  fathers — 
that  so  you  may  depart  in  peace  and  holy  triumph,  and 
enter  the  blissful  mansions  of  the  celestial  paradise,  there 
to  unite  in  the  hallelujahs  of  the  Redeemed  forever — is. 
and  mil  be,  the  fervent  prayer  of  him,  who  now  bids 
you  an  affectionate  and  a  last  farewell  ! 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS. 


[CUMBERLAND  COLLEGK,  OCTOBER  3,  1832.] 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS, 

AT   CUMBERLAND   COLLEGE,  1832. 


Hitherto,  the  graduates  of  our  American  colleges 
have  sustamed  a  character  altogether  worthy  of  the 
high  privileges  with  which  their  juvenile  novitiate  had 
been  distinguished,  and  eminently  creditable  to  their 
respective  seminaries.  Proudly,  indeed,  might  the 
guardian  Genius  of  our  prosperous  Republic  contem- 
plate the  noble  band  of  patriotic  youths,  who,  from  year 
to  year,  haA^e  issued  from  our  Academic  Halls,  and  ex- 
claim, with  the  exulting  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  "  these 
are  my  jewels !"  Through  all  the  perils  of  revolution, 
of  war,  of  party  strife,  they  have  proved  the  foithful 
and  intrepid  champions  of  national  independence,  of 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  of  popular  rights,  of  constitu- 
tional government,  and  of  human  happiness.  There 
may  have  been  among  them  honest  differences  of 
opinion,  but  in  regard  to  radical  principles  there  has 
occurred  but  little  to  disturb  the  harmony  and  peace  of 
the  great  political  confederacy.  They  have  cheerfully 
and  zealously  co-operated  in  the  one  grand  work  of 
achieving  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest  number 

of  citizen  freemen.     That  there  may  not  have  been  some 

279 


280  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

selfish,  ambitious,  reckless,  and  even  traitorous  sjoirits 
among  the  number,  it  would  be  presuming  too  much  on' 
human  virtue  to  affirm.  But  a  solitary  Judas  will  not 
entail  dishonour  upon  the  whole  body  of  the  faithful. 

Happy — thrice  happy  my  country — glorious  beyond 
all  previous  example  would  be  her  destiny — could  it  be 
assumed  that  all  her  enlightened  and  liberally  educated 
sons  will  ever  be  found  true  to  her  cause  and  devoted  to 
her  welfare  !  May  we  reasonably  indulge  in  hopes  and 
anticipations  so  grateful  and  auspicious  ?  Are  there  no 
ominous  symptoms  of  yielding  integrity,  of  spurious 
treasonable  ambition,  of  factious  parricidal  enterprise, 
of  desperate  fraternal  discord,  already  visible?  Have 
not  some,  at  least,  of  our  wise  and  learned  and  honour- 
able men  begun  to  calculate  the  value  of  our  National 
Union,  and  even  to  threaten  its  dissolution  ?  Is  then 
the  fair  fame  of  our  infant  Republic  to  be  tarnished,  and 
the  hopes  of  mankind  to  be  blasted,  by  the  very  class  of 
citizens  who  should  have  died  to  prevent  a  catastrophe 
so  humiliating  and  disastrous  ?  Whence  is  it  that  such 
men  should  thus  be  induced  to  jeopard  national  blessings 
and  national  glory,  actually  possessed  or  certainly  within 
our  reach,  which  have  never  yet  been  paralleled  in  our 
world  ?  I  am  willing  to  believe  that  there  is  more 
delusion  than  knavery  in  the  case  —  that  it  is  a 
momentary  phrensy  which  will  soon  pass  away;  and 
that  the  gathering  cloud  will  disappear  long  before  the 
tempest  shall  burst  upon  our  still  peaceful  habitations. 

But  the  existing  crisis,  whatever  may  be  the  issue,  is 
full  of  warning  and  instruction.      Ten  years  ago — and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  281 

who  would  have  hazarded  the  prediction  that  the  value 
of  the  Union  was  likely  to  become,  within  any  assignable 
period  of  time,  a  subject  of  grave  calculation  or  even  of 
speculative   discussion?      And   yet,    already,  it   is   the 
common  theme  of  every  newspaper  and  of  every  party. 
The  importance  and  stability  of  the  Union,  the  advan- 
tages and  disadvantages  of  the  Union,  are  freely  and 
universally    canvassed.       Its    destruction    therefore    is 
among  possible  events.     And  this  is  itself  a  fact  of  most 
portentous  bearing.     It  speaks  a  language  which  cannot 
be  misunderstood :  and  it  necessarily  creates  doubt,  mis- 
giving and  apprehension  in  regard  to  the  future.     We 
may  take  for  granted,  as  we  confidently  do,  that  the 
measures  of  the  present  agitators  and  ^mUifiers  will  be 
triumphantly  defeated ;   but  still  the  melancholy  convic- 
tion fastens  on  the  mind,  that  the  union  of  these  States 
may  hereafter,  and  perhaps  at  no  very  distant  day,  be 
destroyed  forever !     "  One  and  indivisible"  is  no  longer 
the  sacred  motto  of  every  American.     In  evil  hour  the 
subtle  enemy  has  invaded  our  delightful  paradise^ias 
cast  the  apple  of  discord  into  our  once  united  and  there- 
fore invincible  host — is  eagerly  prompting  brother  to 
imbrue  his  hands  in  the   blood  of  brother:  —  and  yet 
who,  of  all  our  honest  industrious  millions,  has  descried 
his  approach  or  suspected  his  insidious  purpose?     Are 
they  about  to  surrender  their  understandings,  with  their 
lives  and  liberties,  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  very  demon  of 
avarice  and  ambition — blindly — unconsciously — without 
motive — nay  in  direct  contravention  to  every  principle 


282  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

and  consideration  wkich  ought  to  influence  rational,  and 
responsible  agents  ? 

It  has  been  often  remarked,  that  where  superior  learn- 
ing is  restricted  to  a  few,  it  is  likely  to  be  perverted  and 
abused  to  the  injury  of  the  many.  And  all  history 
affords  ample  evidence  of  the  fact.  Every  species  of 
tyranny  and  high-handed  injustice,  practised  on  the 
people  by  government,  has  found  advocates  and  abettors 
among  the  learned.  They  surrounded  the  throne  and 
crouched  at  the  feet  of  Augustus  and  Nero,  of  Charle- 
magne and  Haroun,  of  Alfred  and  Henry  VIII.,  of  Sala- 
din  and  Tamerlane,  of  Elizabeth  and  the  Stuarts,  of  the 
Popes  and  the  Bourbons.  Nor  is  there  any  lack  of 
them,  at  this  day,  in  St.  Petersburg,  Rome,  Madrid,  Lis- 
bon, Cairo  or  Constantinople, — so  far  as  the  mere  instru- 
ments of  despotism  or  superstition  may  be  required. 
Their  talents,  science  and  skill  are  essential  to  the 
schemes  and  political  machinery  of  their  masters.  Thus 
too,  in  the  all-grasping  aristocracies  of  ancient  Rome  and 
modern  Venice,  learning,  as  well  as  wealth  and  power, 
centred  chiefly  in  the  patrician  order,  and  was  therefore 
generally  its  ally  and  apologist.  And  thus  it  has  ever 
been  when  monopolized  b}'  a  small  number.  It  is  its 
diff'usion  among  the  people  which  causes  iniquity  in  high 
places  to  tremble — and  either  drags  the  despot  from  his 
throne  or  converts  the  tiger  into  a  lamb.  What  are  now 
the  prerogatives  of  an  English  monarch  compared  with 
those  exercised  by  the  Stuarts,  the  Tudors,  and  the 
Plantagenets  ?  Had  the  people  of  England  remained 
stationary  in  their   primitive    darkness  and   ignorance. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  283 

like  those  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  neither  English  nor 
American  liberty  had  ever  been  the  theme  of  history  or 
of  song. 

But,  unhappily,  it  is  even  yet  possible  for  the  people, 
both  of  England  and  America,  to  be  misled  by  the 
crafty  and  ambitious,  when  aided  by  learning  and  intelli- 
gence. A  Gracchus  may  play  the  demagogue  as  well  as 
a  Marius  or  Catiline.  Ignorant  people  may  be  deluded 
by  a  Wentworth  or  a  Wilkes,  by  a  Lord  Gordon  or  a 
Mr.  Cobbett :  and  men  have  been  everywhere  eager 
to  avail  themselves  of  popular  excitement  to  gratify  a 
vaulting  ambition.  Our  country,  it  is  feared,  has  at 
length  reached  the  period  of  relaxing  selfish  prosperity, 
when  a  few  of  her  gifted  sons  are  preparing  to  raise  the 
whirlwind  and  the  storm  of  popular  fury,  in  order  to 
mount  to  that  dazzling  pinnacle  of  distinction  which 
they  despair  of  attaining  by  more  legitimate  means. 
Such  men  can  operate  only  on  the  ignorant  and  cre- 
dulous. In  no  State  of  this  Union  are  the  people  so 
corrupt,  venal,  or  barbarous  as  deliberately  to  sanction 
any  system  of  measures  manifestly  unjust  or  iniquitous. 
They  are  not,  like  the  beggarly  rabble  of  degenerate 
Rome,  ready  to  sell  their  suffrages  or  services  to  the 
highest  bidder.  Nor  do  they  resemble  the  degraded 
populace  of  a  modern  European  Metropolis,  that  may  be 
roused  by  the  flattering  blandishments  of  a  cunning 
reformer  or  military  adventurer.  Our  people  are  still 
free  and  honest  citizens.  They  will  espouse  the  cause 
of  truth  and  liberty  and  justice,  whenever  they  clearly 
comprehend  it.     The  demagogue  therefore,  who  would 


284  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

mould  them  to  his  purpose,  must  first  make  them 
believe  that  his  object  is  righteous. — That  the  cause  in 
which  he  would  enlist  their  zeal  is  absolutely  and 
unequivocally  just.  No  man  in  this  nation  is  suffi- 
ciently talented,  eloquent,  and  popular  to  seduce  a  large 
body  of  the  people,  in  any  section  of  the  country,  to  his 
standard,  unless  they  become  thoroughly  persuaded  that 
his  aim  is  honourable  and  patriotic.  They  could  not  be 
hired  or  flattered  to  abet  injustice,  or  to  elevate  personal 
lawless  ambition. 

But  in  regard  to  measures  of  policy  and  legislation 
which  they  do  not  understand,  it  is  easy,  by  incessant 
misrepresentation  and  artful  appeals,  effectually  to  blind 
and  mislead  them,  until  they  fancy  themselves  egre- 
giously  wronged ;  and  that  they  are  called  on,  by  every 
consideration  of  duty  and  interest,  to  seek  by  force  that 
relief  or  redress  which  is  denied  them  by  government. 
While  under  the  spell  of  this  delusion,  a  fictitious 
grievance  is  the  same  to  them  as  a  real  one.  They  will 
contend  for  what  they  believe  to  be  right,  as  sturdily 
as  they  would  do  were  they  assured  of  the  fact  by  a 
divine  revelation. 

Now  precisely  such  is  the  present  aspect  of  our 
national  affairs.  Questions  are  in  agitation  before  the 
public,  which  but  few  of  our  ordinary  citizens  are 
capable  of  fully  investigating  and  appreciating  for  them- 
selves. The  Bank — the  Tariff — Internal  Improvements 
— how  many  even  of  our  most  enlightened  sages  are 
masters  of  these  perplexing  themes  of  universal  discus- 
sion and    concernment?     They    have    a   length    and    a 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  285 

breadth,  a  height  and  a  depth — they  involve  so  many 
apparently  dissimilar  and  conflicting  interests  —  they 
reach  so  far  into  the  future,  and  affect  so  many  rights. 
so  many  branches  of  industry,  so  many  local  privileges 
or  prejudices — they  bear  so  directly  on  doubtful  un- 
settled constitutional  doctrines  or  constructions  —  are 
alarming  or  harmless,  beneficial  or  noxious,  according  to 
opinions  already  formed  relative  to  the  powers  reserved 
by  the  several  States  or  conceded  to  the  General  Govern- 
ixient — that  the  wisest  statesmen  need  not  blush  to 
acknowledge  the  difficulty  of  an  equitable  adjustment, 
and  of  arriving  at  clear,  definite,  unqualified  opinions 
which  may  be  fearlessly  inculcated  at  all  times  and  in 
all  places. 

Are  these  vexed  questions,  then,  within  the  compe- 
tency of  every  village  editor  and  of  every  village 
declaimer  summarily  to  pronounce  upon  ?  Are  the 
people — the  mass  of  the  people  anywhere — adequate  to 
this  high  duty?  Of  course  not.  And  hence  the  wily 
demagogue  has  ample  scope  for  the  exercise  of  his 
peculiar  gifts.  He  may  dogmatize  in  learned  phrase 
and  pompous  diction,  without  fear  of  rebuke  or  ex- 
posure, until  his  auditors  feel  the  conviction  that  all  is 
right  or  that  all  is  wrong — as  the  case  may  be.  For 
both  these  opposite  effects  are  produced  by  the  same 
means  in  different  places  at  the  same  time.  And  in 
each  case  the  people  are  equally  innocent  and  equallj 
imposed  on.  They  receive  as  oracular,  the  statements 
and  illustrations  of  their  leaders — to  whom  they  habitu- 
ally look  for  information  upon  such  intricate  matters 


286  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

They  are  flattered  too,  at  the  same  time  that  they  are  ^ 
cheated.  '  Not  that  their  immediate  instructors  are 
always  wilful  deceivers.  They  may  be  more  fool 
than  knave.  They  may  themselves  be  the  mere  uncon- 
scious instruments  of  some  great  magician,  who  moves 
the  wires  unseen  behind  the  curtain ;  and  whose  man- 
date is  law  throughout  all  his  dependent  and  affiliated 
ranks. 

I  have  such  entire  confidence  in  the  unsophisticated 
native  integrity  and  good  sense  of  the  great  body  of 
our  people,  as  to  affirm  without  hesitation,  that  not  a 
single  State  or  county  could  be  found  which  would 
advocate  injustice,  knowing  it  to  be  injustice.  The 
people  of  Massachusetts,  for  example,  w^ould  not  vote,  if 
they  could  do  it  with  impunity  and  with  the  certainty 
of  success,  to  levy  a  direct  tax  on  the  citizens  of  vSouth 
Carolina  for  their  own  particular  benefit.  Nor  would 
they  sustain  the  tariff  a  single  day  if  they  knew  it  to  be 
oppressive  to  one  portion  of  the  Union,  and  beneficial 
onl}'  to  another.  They  are  taught,  and  they  believe, 
that  it  is  equally  advantageous  to  all.  They  support 
it  therefore  as  a  great  national  blessing.  If  they  err,  it 
is  because  they  have  lyeen  badly  instructed.  Send  them 
to  college,  and  perhaps  they  will  be  able  to  form  a 
better  judgment.  This  would  be'  wiser  and  cheaper, 
more  humane  and  more  logical,  more  republican  and 
more  Christian,  than  to  attempt  their  conversion  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet. 

In  like  manner,  the  good  people  of  the  South  oppose 
and  eschew  the  tariff,  not  because  it  is  in  their  view^ 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  287 

a  fiiir  and  equitable  sj.steiii  of  taxation.  The}-  arc 
willing  to  bear  their  due  proportion  of  the  public 
burdens.  Nor  do  they  denounce  it  because  it  promotes 
their  own  industry  in  common  with  that  of  the  whole 
Republic.  But  because  they  are  instructed  that  it  is  a 
Yankee  project  to  render  them  tributary  to  the  avari- 
cious North.  That  it  is  virtually  a  direct  and  almost 
prohibitory  tax  upon  their  agricultural  staples,  and 
therefore  ruinous  in  its  character  and  tendencies.  They 
are  further  made  to  believe  that  it  is  the  settled  policy 
— the  inflexible  determination  of  the  despotic,  arbitrary, 
covetous  North,  to  maintain  this  odious  tariff,  at  all 
hazards,  henceforth  and  forever.  And  that  the  only 
possible  remedy  is  nidUficatloi} :  which  may  lead — but 
no  matter — to  civil  war  and  to  the  dismemberment 
of  our  glorious  Union  ! 

Here,  then,  is  a  two-fold  delusion.  First,  as  to  the 
fact;  and  second,  as  to  the  remedy.  The  South  is 
made  to  believe  that  the  North  is  deliberately  unjust 
and  oppressive.  Whereas,  among  the  plain  people  of 
the  North,  there  exists  no  such  design  or  desire.  The 
people,  as  such,  would  not  do  injustice  to  the  Hottentots 
— much  less  to  their  own  brethren.  The  tariff  may  be 
as  partial  and  mischievous  as  the  South  represents 
it ;  but  the  North  does  not  perceive  or  believe  it  to  be 
so.  There  is  some  difference  between  an  injury  inflicted 
ignorantly  and  unconsciously,  and  another  committed 
with  malice  prepense  and  aforethought.  And  the  very 
gist  of  the  matter  lies  in  the  qno  animo — the  purpose — 
the  intention.     I  do  not  believe  that  a  majority  of  any 


288  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

one  thousand  American  citizens,  including  manufactur- 
ers themselves,  could  be  found  in  any  vicinage  of  New 
England,  New  York,  or  Pennsylvania,  who  would  insist 
on  a  continuance  of  the  tariff,  if  they  believed  it  to  be  as 
onerous  on  the  South  as  the  Southerners  themselves 
proclaim  it  to  be.  Nor  would  the  Southerners  be  thus 
madly  exasperated,  if  they  fully  understood  the  senti- 
ments of  their  well  intentioned  brethren  at  the  North. 
Nor  would  they,  if  left  to  themselves,  ever  dream  of 
nullification  as  a  remedy  for  their  grievances — admitting 
them  to  be  as  gross  and  monstrous  and  unbearable,  as 
they  are  currently  portrayed  in  many  of  their  leading 
journals  and  by  not  a  few  of  their  most  prominent 
statesmen.  The  remedy  would  be  infinitely  worse  than 
the  disease,  and  could  never  secure  the  object  profess- 
edly aimed  at,  nor  compensate  for  a  thousandth  part  of 
the  miseries  which  it  might  entail  upon  themselves  and 
upon  the  whole  Republic.  I  leave  out  of  the  account 
political  chieftains  on  both  sides.  They  have  their  own 
game  to  play.  And  it  is  precisely  to  expose  this  foul 
play  that  I  have  glanced  at  a  topic  so  unclassical, 
and  apparently  so  uncongenial  with  the  spirit  of  a 
literary  festival. 

What  then  is  the  proper  and  only  remedy  for  all 
such  evils  ?  Undoubtedly,  it  is  simply  this :  The  people 
must  be  more  thoroughly  instructed.  If  a  dozen  or 
twenty  knowing  individuals  can  thus  misguide  and 
deceive  the  multitude,  either  at  the  North  or  at  the 
South,  they  must  be  met  and  encountered  by  other 
knowing   ones  of  equal  ability,  if  not   of  better  prin- 


EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES.  289 

ciplcs.  "When  the  number  of  intelligent  men  in  any 
place  is  comparatively  large,  it  will  not  be  in  the  power 
of  one  or  a  few  to  impose  on  the  whole  community.  In 
no  State,  city  or  county,  could  even  a  Pericles  or  a 
Tully  long  control  the  popular  mind,  if  opposed  by  a 
Franklin  or  a  Henrj-.  It  would  be  vain  to  eulogize  the 
tarift'  in  Philadelphia,  if  the  people  could  discern  and 
estimate  its  [reputed,  I  do  not  snj,  acknowledged]  in- 
justice. And  equally  vain  to  preach  up  nullification  in 
Charleston,  were  the  whole  subject  thoroughly  com- 
prehended by  the  citizens  generally. 

Since  then  we  cannot  prevent  the  existence  and 
constant  grow^th  of  learned  men  of  some  sort  and  to 
some  extent,  let  us  have  as  many  as  possible.  If  they 
are  rogues  all — why,  then,  set  a  rogue  to  catch  a  rogue. 
If  fifty  league  together  to  do  harm,  let  us  have  a 
thousand,  and  then  union  wall  be  impracticable:  and 
fifty  thousand  w^ill  be  still  less  dangerous.  The  more 
the  better.  And  if  the  whole  sovereign  people  would 
get  knowledge,  like  Franklin  in  the  workshop,  or  like 
Jeflferson  in  the  college,  or  like  Washington  on  the  farm 
and  in  the  camp,  or  like  Whitney  everywhere,  the}- 
would  probably  be  none  the  worse  either  as  private 
citizens  or  public  benefactors. 

And  here  I  take  occasion  to  remark,  for  the  special 
benefit  of  my  3'outhful  charge,  that  if  they  would 
become  qualified  to  command  respect  in  the  world 
by  their  talents,  their  virtues,  or  their  attainments, 
they  have  yet  a  great  work  to  perform.  We  have 
heard  and  read  much  of  self-made  and  self-taught  men. 

VOL.  I.  19 


290  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

The   truth   is,    that    every    eminent    man  —  especially 
among   the    literary,    the    scientific,   the    professional — ' 
has  been  a  self-made  man.     Bacon  and  Locke,  Milton 
and   Newton,  Burke  and  Mansfield  were  as  truly  self- 
made    and    self-taught    men,     as    were    Johnson    and 
Franklin,    Furguson    and    Rittenhouse,    Herschel    and 
Fulton.     The  first  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  a  college 
directly,  the  latter  indirectly :    and  all  attained  distinc- 
tion by  the  same  intellectual  process.     They  severally 
availed  themselves  of  all  the  instruments  and  sources 
of    knowledge    within    their    reach:     and    persevering 
industry,   as  a  law  of  their   existence,    ensured    them 
victory  and  honour.     Rumford,  Hutton,  Davy,  Sherman, 
Pope,    Wythe   were   as   much   debtors    to    the    college 
as    were    Barrow,    Edwards,    Dwight,    Fox,    Scott    or 
Canning.     The  books,  the  science,  the  literary  taste,  the 
universal  consideration   attendant   on   superior   mental 
endowments,   which   colleges   had   created,   multiplied, 
diffused,    and    everywhere    exhibited,    led    Franklin,  as 
they   have   led    thousands,    to    imitate,   to    master,    to 
emulate,  to  rival  the  excellence  thus  presented  to  their 
view  and  to  their  ambition.     Had  there  been  no  colleges 
or  seminaries  of  liberal  learning — no  literary  or  scien- 
tific enterprise  or   spirit  abroad — Franklin  might  have 
been  a  Confucius  or  a  Numa  among  barbarians,  but  he 
would  never  have  been    the  first  of  philosophers   and 
statesmen  among  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  the 
earth. 

The  great  men  of  Greece  were  all  nurtured  in  her  col- 
leges, in  one   or  other  of  the   modes  just  specified  — 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  291 

as  had  been  those  of  Egypt  and  Babylon  and  Pha^- 
nicia,  centuries  before.  Her  statesmen  and  her  generals 
were  thoroughly  educated  and  literary  men.  Among  her 
distinguished  warriors  were  Pericles,  Themistocles,  Aris- 
tides,  Socrates,  ^Eschylus,  Sophocles,  Thucydides,  Xeno- 
phon — the  brightest  names  also  in  the  catalogue  of 
her  literature,  eloquence  and  philosophy.  Nor  did  the 
Roman  hero  and  politician  disdain  the  arts  and  accom- 
plishments of  conquered  Greece — as  the  Gracchi,  the 
Scipios,  the  Bruti,  the  Catos,  the  Luculli,  the  Civsars,  the 
Ciceros  may  testify.  But  when  the  learned  colleges  of 
Athens,  of  Rome,  of  Alexandria  were  extinguished  by 
barbarian  conquest,  and  all  western  Christendom  had 
become  the  prey  of  ignorance  and  despotism,  letters  and 
refinement  still  lingered  within  the  proud  walls  of 
Bagdad,  of  Cordova  and  of  Constantinople.  At  length, 
in  the  13th  and  14th  centuries,  the  university  again 
resumed  its  proper  office,  and  began  to  scatter  light 
amidst  the  surrounding  darkness  —  especially  in  Italy, 
France,  Germany,  Holland  and  Britain.  The  ancient 
classics  were  disinterred  from  beneath  the  rubbish  of 
ages  —  were  studied,  edited  and  admired.  The  art  of 
printing  was  seasonably  invented.  The  capture  of  Con- 
stantinople by  the  Turkish  Moslems,  in  the  loth  cen- 
tury, dispersed  a  host  of  veteran  Grecians  among  the 
schools  of  western  Europe.  Colleges  were  everywhere 
established,  enlarged  and  improved.  And  the  first 
grand  result  was  the  glorious  Reformation.  Here  was 
the  dawn  of  modern  liberty,  and  of  that  vast  process 
of  amelioration  which  has  been  advancing  and  extend- 


292  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

ing  far  and  wide  ever  since.  The  influence  of  enlight- 
ening literature  has  been  felt,  not  only  in  Protestant 
Christendom,  but  throughout  Roman  Catholic  Europe; 
and  is  penetrating  the  strongholds  even  of  Mohamme- 
dan and  Pagan  priestcraft  and  degradation.  All  this 
marvellous  improvement  has  been  effected  by  the  uni- 
versity and  the  schoolmaster.  Let  no  man  deem  lightly 
of  the  instrument  which  has  elevated  himself  and  mil- 
lions of  his  kindred  to  so  lofty  a  height  in  the  scale  of 
being. — Which  secures  to  him  liberty  of  conscience,  the 
rights  of  humanity,  the  fruits  of  his  industry,  and  all 
the  blessings  and  immunities  of  free  institutions  and  of 
self-government. 

Wherever  the  university  has  been  suffered  to  flourish 
and  expand,  and  to  send  forth  its  salutary  streams 
among  the  people,  there  have  been  growing  up  both  the 
capacity  and  the  determination  to  resist  all  gross  oppres- 
sion. And  there  too  a  decided  progress  has  been  made 
in  all  the  arts  of  peace,  and  especially  in  the  science  of 
government.  In  Spain,  Portugal  and  Russia,  a  fool  or  a 
ruffian  may  be  tolerated  on  the  throne,  because  the 
university  has  been  kept  in  bondage  a^id  the  people  in 
io-norance.     But  were  a  Nero  seated  on  the  throne  of 

o 

England  to-morrow,  he  would  not  dare  to  violate  a 
single  law  of  the  realm.  He  could  no  more  enact  the 
part  of  a  Richard  or  a  Henry,  than  the  meanest  subject 
could  commit  murder  Avith  impunity. 

But  in  our  country,  though  we  may  not  dread  the 
cruelties  of  a  Nero,  or  the  proscriptions  of  a  Sylla,  or 
the  usurpations  of  a  Caesar,  yet  we  may  dread  the  arts 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  293 

of  a  popular  lavourite  acting  upon  an  ignorant  and 
excited  people.  We  have  no  refuge  or  security  from 
popular  insanity  but  in  the  virtue  and  intelligence  of 
the  people  themselves.  This  is  our  only  bulwark 
against  the  inroads  of  ambition  and  the  wiles  of  selfish 
profligacy.  Every  sensible  man  among  us  knows  this  to 
be  the  fact.  Our  Washingtons  and  Franklins  and  JefFer- 
sons  have  long  since  announced  it:  and  though  dead, 
their  warning  voice  is  still  heard  and  respected  by  every 
enlightened  patriot.  Base  and  reckless  and  suicidal 
is  the  policy  which  seeks  to  prostrate  the  college  and 
universit}^  under  the  specious  pretext  of  giving  to  the 
people  a  common  school  education. 

I  care  as  little  about  names  as  any  man.  K  the  name 
of  college  or  university  be  unsavoury  in  the  ears  of  the 
people  or  of  the  people's  guardians  and  conscience  keep- 
ers, let  it  be  cashiered.  Let  our  colleges  and  universities 
be  called  academies,  lyceums,  gymnasia,  common  schools, 
or  popular  intellectual  workshops — or  by  any  other 
republican  appellation,  if  any  more  acceptable  or  less 
invidious  can  be  invented.  It  is  the  thing — the  sub- 
stance—  the  knowledge  —  the  mental  enlargement  and 
energy  and  power — that  I  would  give  to  the  people  in  as 
ample  measure  as  possible.  That  they  may  be  sovereign 
in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  That  they  may  be  capable 
of  knowing  and  guarding  and  asserting  their  owm  rights 
and  liberties,  without  the  second  sight  of  any  political 
juggler  or  officious  bankrupt  Solomon. 

I  would  create  here  in  Nashville,  or  in  Knoxville,  or 
in  Memphis,  or  in  each,  a  university  or  great  conunou 


294  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

school  —  with  accommodations  for  a  thousand  pupik  — 
with  able  instructors,  libraries,  apparatus,  and  all  man- 
ner of  useful  fixtures  and  appurtenances — at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  Commonwealth.  Every  poor  youth,  pro- 
perly qualified,  should  be  admitted  to  its  privileges 
gratis.  The  rich  might  pay  for  their  sons.  But  none 
should  be  excluded  for  want  of  means.  If  more  than 
a  thousand  pupils  should  offer — enlarge  the  establish- 
ment, or  erect  others  upon  the  same  plan.  This  would 
be  a  species  of  internal  improvement  Avorthy  of  the 
Republic,  and  which  would  elevate  Tennessee  to  a  rank 
never  jet  attained  by  any  people.  And  the  Legisla- 
ture which  shall  boldly  lay  the  corner  stone  of  such 
a  magnificent  temple  of  popular  instruction,  will  deserve 
and  will  gain  a  glorious  immortality,  whatever  may 
be  the  verdict  of  their  constituents  or  of  their  contem- 
poraries. ^  Their  magnanimous  and  enlightened  patriot- 
ism will  be  celebrated  a  thousand  lustrums  after  the 
petty  interests  and  conflicts  of  this  selfish  generation 
shall  be  forgotten. 

I  have  asserted  that  colleges  have  done  good,  or  that 
learning  has  been  useful.  That,  like  wealth  and  power, 
when  possessed  only  by  a  few,  it  has  been  often  abused 
to  the  injury  of  others.  That  our  college  graduates 
have  generally  been  the  faithful  sentinels  and  advocates 
of  popular  rights.  That  if  any  appear  to  be  swerving 
from  the  straight  path  of  rectitude,  it  is  because  they 
have  discovered  an  ignorant  mass  on  which  to  operate. 
That  the  only  remedy  for  the  evil — the  only  prevent- 
ive of  its  recurrence  and  of  its  rapid  increase — is  the 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  295 

iiiiincdiato  education  of  a  much  larger  proportion  of  the 
people.  Not  the  giving  tlu'ni  what  is  called  a  common 
school  education — the  most  of  them  have  this  already — 
and  it  does  not  suffice.  The  man  who  can  merely  read 
and  write  is  no  match  for  the  thorough-bred  political 
gladiator.  He  cannot  dispel  the  sophistry  even  of  the 
village  attorney  or  of  the  village  gazette.  He  is  just  the 
man  to  be  led  astra}'  by  the  newspaper  essayist.  And 
the  newspaper  is  the  very  engine  employed  to  gull 
the  people  who  can  read,  but  who  are  too  ignorant  to 
discriminate,  to  reason  and  to  judge. 

None  but  enemies  of  the  people  will  ever  gravely 
maintain  that  a  common  school  education,  in  the  or- 
dinary meaning  of  the  phrase,  is  all  they  need.'-'  This 
would  be  virtually  telling  them  to  be  hew^ers  of  wood 
and  draw  ers  of  water  under  political  task-masters  for- 
ever. Why  is  it  that  our  law^yers  rule  the  nation, 
and  fill  all  our  lucrative  offices,  from  the  Presidency 
downwards?  Simply  and  solely  because  they  can  do 
something  more  than  read  and  write.  If  our  mechanics 
and  farmers  would  enter  the  lists  wath  our  lawyers,  they 
must  acquire  the  same  degree  of  intellectual  power  and 
address.  Nor  would  this  prove  a  very  difficult  achieve- 
ment.    Take  the  common  run  of  our  lawyers — and  like 


*  That  I  am  hostile  or  indifferent  to  common  schools  will  not  be 
suspected  by  any  person  in  the  least  acquainted  with  my  views  on  the 
subject.  I  have  been  their  public  and  zealous  advocate  on  all  suitable 
occasions.  Among  others,  I  may  refer  to  a  series  of  essays,  which 
appeared  in  the  Nashville  Republican,  during  the  winter  and  spring 
of  18.31,  under  the  caption  of  "Public  Schools." 


296  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

our  parsons — they  are  no  great  tilings.      The  mechanics 

and  farmers  might  easily  beat  them  at  their  own  game 
and  with  tlieir  own  weapons.  If  they  did  but  under- 
stand their  interests,  they  would  unite  with  the  school- 
master, make  common  cause  w4th  him,  and  assert  their 
natural  rights  and  influence  in  society.  Let  them  take 
this  matter  of  schools  and  colleges  into  their  own  hands. 
Let  them  rally  around  our  most  respectable  and  merito- 
rious, though  poor,  persecuted  and  much  reviled  univer- 
sity. Let  them  contribute  the  trifle  of  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  or  so,  to  its  funds,  and  send  to  it  a  few 
hundred  of  their  clever  youths  to  acquire  the  art  of 
lawyer-fighting — and  we  shall  soon  see  them  at  the  head 
of  affairs,  as  they  ought  to  be.  This  is  the  best  advice 
that  I  can  give  them.  If  they  prefer  ignorance,  and 
are  determined  to  keep  their  sons  in  ignorance — then, 
farewell  to  all  their  greatness,  and  to  all  the  dignity 
which  their  position  might  justly  command.  They  may 
frown  upon  colleges  —  they  may  abuse  them — they  may 
starve  them — they  may  scatter  them  to  the  winds — but 
the}^  only  sink  themselves  the  lower  in  the  general  scale 
of  humanity.  Instead  of  training  their  own  sons  to 
illustrate  their  names  and  to  adorn  the  Commonwealth, 
they  will  become  the  spoil  and  the  scorn  of  every 
European  or  Eastern  adventurer  who  may  choose  to 
settle  among  them.  For  they  cannot  interdict  the  in- 
gress of  as  much  talent  and  learning  from  abroad  as  will 
suffice  to  discharge  those  public  and  professional  func- 
tions to  which  they  would  themselves  be  totally  in- 
adequate. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  297 

I  have  been  pleading  the  cause  of  farmers  and  me- 
chanics for  some  ten  or  a  dozen  years  past.  Because 
upon  them,  as  enUghtcned,  judicious,  independent,  pa- 
triotic citizens,  depend  the  destinies  of  this  Republic. 
The  question  is,  shall  they  lead  or  be  led  ?  Shall  they 
arrest  and  put  down  the  factious  spirit  of  unprincipled 
ambition,  or  shall  they  tamely  lend  themselves  as  the 
instruments  and  the  victims  of  its  desperate  and  treason- 
able purposes?  The  crisis  has  arrived  when  the  people 
must  speak  and  act  wisely  and  resolutely,  or  their 
ability  to  speak  and  to  act,  wdth  decisive  efficiency,  will 
be  lost  forever. 

The  lawyers  are  now^  our  sole  political  guides  and 
instructors.  They  engross  the  learning  of  the  country ; 
I  mean  all  that  learning  which  is  brought  to  bear  on 
government,  legislation  and  public  policy — for  the  ph}'- 
sicians  rarely  intermeddle  in  these  affairs ;  and  the 
clergy  ought  forever  to  be  excluded  by  law,  if  not  by  a 
high  sense  of  duty.  Our  farmers  and  mechanics  there- 
fore, who  constitute  the  great  body  of  the  people,  are 
governed  by  the  lawyers.  Now  it  is  not  in  human 
nature,  that  in  such  a  country  as  ours,  there  should  not 
grow  up  a  sort  of  professional  aristocracy,  which  in 
time  may  become  irresistible.  Wherever  there  is  a 
privileged  order,  no  matter  how  constituted — whether 
like  the  patrician  of  ancient,  or  the  ecdeslastic  of  modern 
I^ome — it  will,  if  not  duly  checked  and  counterbalanced, 
in  the  long  run,  become  overbearing  and  tyrannical.  I 
look  to  the  college  for  a  seasonable  supply  of  counter- 
vailing agents.     I  look  to  a  well  educated  independent 


298  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

yeomanry  as  the  sheet  anchor  of  the  Republic.  I  look 
forward  to  the  period  when  it  will  not  be  deemed  anti- ' 
republican  for  the  college  graduate  to  follow  the  plough ; 
nor  a  seven  days'  wonder  for  the  labourer  to  be  intellec- 
tual and  to  comprehend  the  Constitution  of  his  country. 
I  am  not  unfriendly  to  lawyers.  I  could  say  much  in 
their  praise,  were  I  in  the  humour  of  pronouncing  en- 
comiums. In  their  proper  sphere,  they  are  useful  and 
necessary.  But  that  they  should  engross  the  legislative, 
judicial  and  executive  functions  of  the  government,  is 
neither  republican,  nor  safe,  nor,  upon  any  ground, 
defensible.  There  would  be  reason  in  the  thing,  if,  like 
the  farmers,  they  composed  a  large  numerical  majority 
of  the  population.  But  that  a  few  thousand  of  any 
particular  profession,  class  or  order  should  rule  over 
millions  is  as  anomalous,  and  as  inconsistent  with  the 
genius  of  our  popular  institutions,  as  would  be  an 
hereditary  aristocracy  possessing  the  same  exclusive 
privilege.  The  farmers  have  no  alternative  but  to 
yield  their  necks  to  the  yoke,  or  to  open  up  for  their 
sons  a  great  highway  to  the  scientific  halls  of  the 
university.  Belonging,  as  I  do,  to  their  respectable 
fraternity  by  birth,  by  early  association  and  by  all  the 
ties  of  kindred — the  son  of  a  lalDouring  fiirmer,  the 
brother  of  labouring  farmers,  and  the  father,  it  may 
be,  of  labouring  farmers  and  mechanics — I  cannot  be 
indifferent  to  their  welfare  even  upon  the  most  selfish 
considerations.  But  I  feel  conscious  of  a  higher  motive. 
I  seek  to  elevate  my  country,  by  imparting  to  all  her 
sons  the  noblest  attributes  of  humanity.     That  we  may 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  299 

be  forever  a  nation  of  enlightened,  generous,  high- 
minded,  self-governing  freemen.  The  envy  and  the 
admiration  of  the  world. 

I  have  availed  myself  of  every  suitable  occasion  to  im- 
press on  the  minds  of  my  pupils  the  sacred  duty  which 
they  owe  their  country,  of  endeavouring  through  life 
to  promote  the  cause  of  popular  education.  To  do  their 
utmost  to  enlighten  the  public  mind,  and  to  establish 
a  system  calculated  to  diffuse  useful  knowledge  among 
the  labouring  classes  of  the  community.  Let  them  be 
the  persevering,  intrepid,  uncompromising  advocates  of 
the  good  old  orthodox  doctrines  of  our  revolutionary 
heroes  and  sages.  Countenanced  by  such  a  veteran 
phalanx  of  wisdom  and  philanthropy,  and  animated  by 
the  noble  purpose  of  perpetuating  the  liberty  and  happi- 
ness of  their  country,  they  may  well  disregard  the 
undeserved  and  groundless  hostility  which  lofty  virtue 
seldom  fails  to  provoke. 

I  shall  not  stop  to  inquire  what  Tennessee  has 
attempted  or  effected  for  the  instruction  of  her  half 
million  of  freemen.  One  thing  I  have  heard  however, 
which,  though  too  monstrous  to  be  credited,  I  feel  con- 
strained just  to  glance  at.  It  is  this — that  some  former 
legislatures,  so  far  from  having  directly  and  munificently 
aided  the  paramount  cause  of  education  amongst  us, 
have  actually  withheld  from  the  schools  and  colleges 
funds  which  had  been  solemnly  appropriated  to  their  use 
bv  the  National  Congress.  This  I  presume  to  be  mere 
gratuitous  slander.  For,  if  true,  it  Avould  be  enough 
to  impart  fresh  lustre  to  the  everlasting  fame  even  of 


300  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

the  Goth  and  Yandal!  History,  however,  will  detail 
the  facts :  and  impartial  posterity  will  sit  in  judgment. 
I  trust  the  present  or  a  future  legislature  will  correct 
the  error,  if  any  have  been  committed  by  their  predeces- 
sors, so  that  the  faithful  historian  may  be  enabled  to 
record  the  satisfaction  to  justice,  law,  and  honour,  upon 
the  same  page  which  shall  transmit  the  story  of  the 
people's  wrongs. 

There  is  magic  in  a  sound — in  a  name — in  country. 
Who  does  not  love  his  countrj^ — one's  own  native 
country — the  hallowed  home  of  his  infancy,  of  his 
kindred,  of  his  fathers'  sepulchres?  How  does  it  strike 
the  ear  and  thrill  the  bosom  of  the  pilgrim  ui  a  foreign 
land?  What  citizen  of  this  vast  Republic,  Avhen  abroad 
in  distant  climes,  has  not  felt  the  glow  of  patriotic 
enthusiasm  and  exultation  mantle  his  cheek  when  the 
proud  name  American  has  greeted  his  ears  from  the 
voice  of  approving  strangers — or  burned  with  indig- 
nation if  mentioned  m  terms  of  disrespect  or  measured 
praise?  And  are  we  about  to  forfeit  our  inherited  title 
to  this  glorious  appellation  ?  x\re  we  to  be  known 
hereafter  as  Tennesseans,  or  Carolinians,  or  Georgians,  or 
Kentuckians,  or  New-Yorkers — and  not  as  Americans  ? 
We  are  the  only  people  on  this  immense  continent  who 
have  acquired  and  appropriated,  by  universal  consent, 
the  distinctive  national  epithet  of  Americans.  The  rest 
are  Canadians,  or  Mexicans,  or  Peruvians,  or  Colum- 
bians, or  Bolivians,  or  Brazilians.  We,  and  we  only, 
are  Americans.  And  who  so  base  as  tamely  to  suifer 
this  illustrious  name  to  be  merged  in  a  dozen  or  twenty 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  301 

little  party  provincial  by-words — to  be  scoffed  at  by  all 
the  world  ? 

Every  individual  of  a  great,  magnanimous  and  ho- 
noured nation,  is  himself  a  sharer  of  his  country's  glory. 
Her  reputation  is  reflected  upon  himself  lie  becomes 
thereby  more  respectable  in  his  own  eyes,  more  chival- 
rous in  his  sentiments,  and  more  sternly  patriotic  in  all 
his  purposes.  His  country's  name,  like  a  coronet  of 
nobility,  is  a  passport  to  honour  and  distinction  where- 
ever  he  goes.  Thus  it  was  in  the  better  days  of  the 
Roman  Commonwealth.  Roman  was  a  more  august  and 
commanding  title  than  that  of  satrap,  prince,  or  king. 
I  am  no  blind  admirer  of  Roman  policy  or  of  Roman 
virtue.  But  I  do  admire  that  personal  self-devotion 
which  could  yield  everything  to  country;  and,  as  it 
were,  identify  individual  existence  with  the  prosperity 
and  glory  of  the  Republic.  The  patriotism  of  the  old 
Roman  was  large  and  generous,  though  utterly  regard- 
less of  every  principle  of  international  justice  and 
morality.  To  Rome,  as  his  supreme  divinity,  he  con- 
secrated his  energies  and  his  undivided  homage.  For 
her,  he  laboured  and  fought  and  conquered  and  died. 
His  worst  crimes  were  national,  and  were  perpetrated  to 
advance  the  grandeur  of  Rome.  He  never  dreamed  of 
elevating  himself  at  the  expense  of  his  country.  Of  all 
such  mean,  stupid,  selfish,  infamous  ambition,  he  was 
innocent  and  unsuspected.  There  was  sublimity  in  his 
single-hearted  devotion  to  country — however  lamentably 
defective  may  have  been  the  standard  by  which  his 
martial  achievements  were  estimated. 


302'  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Happily  for  us,  American  patriotism  and  ambition 
may  be  gratified  in  a  more  legitimate  sphere.  Not  in' 
conquering  other  nations — not  in  extending  the  territo- 
rial limits  of  the  Republic — not  in  enriching  our  Metro- 
polis with  the  spoils  and  ruins  of  a  thousand  cities — not 
in  blotting  from  the  map  of  the  world  any  rival  Car- 
thage or  splendid  Corinth — not  in  triumphs  and  ovations 
and  gladiatorial  butcheries  to  amuse  an  idle,  l^esotted, 
rapacious  rabble.  We  have  no  such  objects  of  national 
ambition.  War  is  not  our  congenial  element.  We  covet 
no  enlargement  of  territory.  It  is  as  vast  already  as 
even  Roman  ambition  could  desire.  We  have  only  to 
preserve  it  undivided  and  undiminished  as  a  rich  legacy 
to  posterity.  Upon  this  grand  point  our  patriotic  efforts 
must  be  concentrated.  The  union  of  the  States  must  be 
maintained  at  every  hazard  and  sacrifice.  This  is  the 
first  grand  maxim  of  our  political  creed.  It  should  be 
inculcated  in  every  school  and  by  every  patriot.  It 
should  be  instilled  into  the  heart  of  every  child,  as  a 
sacred  principle,  by  every  parent.  The  Union  of  the 
States  should  be  the  motto  and  the  watchword  of  every 
American,  and  be  engraven  upon  the  arms  and  the 
banners  of  every  party,  sect,  and  institution  of  the  land. 
It  should  be  heresy,  treason,  infamy,  to  compass  its 
destruction  or  to  impair  its  foundations. 

The  Union  safe — we  have  other  noble  national  objects 
to  achieve.  The  arts  of  peace  —  science,  literature,  re- 
ligion— whatever  embellishes,  whatever  elevates,  what- 
ever purifies  the  character,  and  contributes  to  the 
happiness  of  mankind — these  it  will  be  our  study  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  303 

our  ambition  to  promote.  We  have  a  national  literar 
ture  to  create.  Englishmen  have  affected  to  despise 
us  as  a  degenerate  and  vulgar  race.  We  have  taught 
them  some  seasonable  lessons  at  the  cannon's  mouth, 
both  on  the  land  and  upon  the  ocean.  This  species 
of  bloody  rivalry,  we  trust,  is  at  an  end.  We  must  now 
contend  for  the  prize  of  intellectual  supremacy.  For 
though  English  literature  is  as  much  our  inheritance  as 
the  English  language  and  English  jurisprudence,  yet 
since  we  are  refused  the  boon  and  are  daily  stigmatized 
on  account  of  our  literary  poverty  and  meagre  scholar- 
ship, let  us  have  a  literature  strictly  American — such  as 
Americans  may  be  proud  of,  and  such  as  British  criti- 
cism may  no  longer  ridicule  or  annihilate.  Let  every 
department  of  useful  learning,  of  profound  science,  of 
elegant  letters,  of  manly  authorship,  be  boldly  essayed 
and  perse veringly  prosecuted. 

Providence  has  placed  us  on  a  lofty  and  conspicuous 
eminence.  The  eyes  of  the  world  are  upon  us.  We 
have  a  glorious  part  assigned  us :  and  deep  and  damning 
will  be  our  infamy  if  we  fail  to  perform  it.  To  us  has 
been  intrusted  the  experiment,  never  yet  fully  tried, 
whether  a  people  can  govern  themselves  without  kings 
or  nobility  or  standing  armies.  To  us  is  allotted  the 
enviable  distinction  of  demonstrating,  on  the  largest 
scale,  that  any  number  of  millions  of  free  and  equal 
citizens  may  dwell  together  in  peace,  and  exercise 
all  the  prerogative  of  self-government  without  tumult, 
anarchy  or  domestic  warfare.  We  are  to  exhibit  the 
phenomenon   of  a   well   educated,  intelligent,  virtuous 


304  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

nation — free  without  licentiousness  —  religious  without 
a  religious  establishment — obedient  to  laws  administered 
by  citizen  magistrates,  without  the  show  of  official  lie- 
tors  or  fasces,  and  without  the  aid  of  mercenary  legions 
or  janizaries.  We  have  it  in  commission  to  instruct  the 
world  ill  the  science  and  in  the  art  of  government. 
Should  we  march  onward  in  the  career  of  peaceful 
philanthropy  which  Heaven  seems  to  have  destined  and 
marked  out  for  us  —  what  an  invaluable  inheritance 
shall  we  not  bequeath  to  the  latest  generations,  in  the 
honoured — universally  honoured  —  hallowed  name  of 
American  ? 

In  conclusion,  I  adopt  the  language  and  the  senti- 
ments of  an  eminent  living  statesman:  and  sure  I  am 
that  every  American,  to  whom  the  unsullied  splendour 
of  his  country's  glory  is  dearer  than  life,  will  respond  a 
hearty  Amen. 

"While  the  Union  lasts,  we  have  high,  exciting, 
gratifying  prospects  spread  out  before  us,  for  us  and  our 
children.  Beyond  that,  I  seek  not  to  penetrate  the  veil. 
God  grant  that,  in  my  day,  at  least,  that  curtain  may 
not  rise.  God  grant  that  on  my  vision  never  may  be 
opened  what  lies  behind.  When  my  eyes  shall  be 
turned  to  behold,  for  the  last  time,  the  sun  in  Heaven, 
may  I  not  see  him  shining  on  the  broken  and  disho- 
noured fragments  of  a  once  glorious  Union;  on  States 
dissevered,  discordant,  belligerent ;  on  a  land  rent  with 
civil  feuds,  or  drenched,  it  may  be,  in  fraternal  blood ! 
Let  their  last  feeble  and  lingering  glance  rather  behold 
the  gorgeous  Ensign  of  the  Eepublic,  now  known  and 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  305 

honoured  throughout  the  earth,  still  full  high  advanced, 
its  arms  and  trophies  streaming  in  their  original  lustre, 
not  a  stripe  erased  or  polluted,  nor  a  single  star  obscured 
— bearing  for  its  motto  no  such  miserable  interrogatory 
as.  What  is  all  this  ivorth  ?  Nor  those  other  words  of 
delusion  and  folly,  Liberty  first,  and  Union  afterwards — 
but  everywhere,  spread  all  over  in  characters  of  living 
light,  blazing  on  all  its  ample  folds,  as  they  float  over  the 
sea  and  over  the  land,  and  in  every  wind  under  the 
whole  Heavens,  that  other  sentiment,  dear  to  every 
true  American  heart — Liberty  and  Union,  now  and 
forever,  one  and  inseparable."* 

Young  Gentlemen :  We  now  part,  perhaps  to  meet  no 
more  on  earth.  Soon,  very  soon,  we  must  all  meet  at 
the  bar  of  the  eternal  Judge  of  quick  and  dead,  to  hear 
the  last  solemn  award  wdiich  shall  fix  our  destiny  for 
weal  or  woe  forever!  How  trivial  are  all  terrestrial 
concerns  —  the  honours  of  literature,  the  renown  of 
heroism,  the  achievements  of  the  patriot,  the  reputation 
of  the  statesman,  the  delights  of  popularity,  the  rewards 
of  painful  industry,  or  even  the  glory  of  country — when 
compared  with  the  awful  and  resplendent  realities  of  a 
future  world,  the  blessings  of  immortality,  the  felicity  of 
Heaven,  the  holy  friendship  of  angelic  spirits,  the  un- 
speakable love  and  approving  smile  of  the  King  of  kings 
and  the  Lord  of  lords ! 

To  follow  the  meek  and  lowly  example  of  Him  who 

*  The  Candidates  were  then  admitted  to  their  Degrees  with  the 
customary  formalities,  and  the  following  remarks  were  addressed  to 
them. 

VOL.  I.  20 


306  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

went  about  doing  good  —  to  imitate  the  unobtrusive 
virtues  of  Him,  who,  when  on  earth,  had  not  where  to 
lay  his  head  —  to  secure  a  refuge  in  the  mercy  and 
righteousness  and  atoning  sacrifice  of  Him  whose  king- 
dom is  not  of  this  world — to  suffer  contumely,  reproach, 
scorn,  contempt,  poverty,  persecution  and  death  for  Him 
who  endured  them  all,  without  a  murmur,  for  our  sake 
— will,  in  the  great  day  of  universal  reckoning  and 
retribution,  be  accounted  infinitely  more  glorious  and 
honourable  than  to  have  conquered  armies  or  governed 
empires,  or  than  to  have  founded  or  saved  republics. 
The  humblest  disciple  of  the  despised  and  crucified  babe 
of  Bethlehem  will  then  eclipse,  in  celestial  splendour,  the 
proudest  genius  that  ever  astonished  or  delighted  man- 
kind. The  martyr's  crown  will  then  have  acquired  a 
value  and  a  radiance,  even  in  royal  eyes,  which  a  thou- 
sand worlds  could  not  purchase. 

Therefore,  set  not  your  hearts  upon  this  transitory 
and  delusive  scene.  With  all  your  getting,  get  under- 
standing. Covet  chiefly  that  pure,  enlightening,  saving 
wisdom  which  is  from  above.  Seek  first  and  above  all 
things  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and 
you  will  be  armed  against  every  foe  and  be  sure  of  the 
divine  favour  and  protection.  Be  Christians,  that  you 
may  be  happy  in  time  —  happy  in  death — and  happy 
forever ! 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS. 

fDNIVfiRSITY  OF  NASHVILLE,  OCTOBER  1,  1834.] 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  NASHVILLE,  1834. 


Young  Gentlemen: 

Ten  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  attempt  was 
made  to  resuscitate  and  reorganize  the  institution  which 
this  day  enrolls  your  names  among  her  Alumni;  and 
which  you  are  henceforth  to  cherish  and  to  honour  as 
your  Alma  Mater. 

During  this  brief  space,  many  extraordinary  events 
have  occurred  both  to  adorn  and  to  disgrace  the  page  of 
our  world's  history.  And  even  among  ourselves,  the 
current  of  affairs  has  not  flowed  onward  in  unruffled 
smoothness,  or  without  giving  rise  to  incidents  calcu- 
lated sometimes  to  cheer,  and  more  frequently  to  dis- 
hearten the  friends  of  learning  and  education. 

Death,  too,  has  removed  from  the  scene  of  action  one 
and  another  of  our  veteran  advocates  and  coadjutors. 
Nor  has  he  spared  the  vigorous  manly  youth,  who  was 
just  beginning  to  consecrate  his  talents  and  energies  to 
the  noblest  cause  within  the  scope  of  enlightened  phi- 
lanthropy. The  Trustees,  the  Faculty,  and  the  Alumni, 
have  all  been  visited,  at  successive  periods,  by  the  fell 

destroyer :   and  several  from  each  of  these  bodies  have 

309 


310  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

been  summoned  to  their  everlasting  home.  We  have 
paid  the  last  melancholy  tribute  of  respect  to  the 
remains  and  to  the  memory  of  the  venerable  father, 
the  talented  professor,  and  the  juvenile  companion  of  our 
studies  and  of  our  affectionate  counsels. 
•  We,  however,  have  been  graciously  spared  to  witness 
the  celebration  of  the  ninth  joyous  anniversary  com- 
mencement of  our  beloved  University,  under  circum- 
stances singularly  calculated  to  elicit  the  sentiment  and 
the  expression  of  unfeigned  gratitude  to  our  Almight}' 
and  most  beneficent  Preserver.  While  the  exterminating 
pestilence*  has  been  sweeping  over  the  land,  carrying 
death  and  desolation  into  thousands  of  happy  families, 
our  little  community  has  been  guarded  and  defended  by 
the  good  providence  of  Israel's  God  and  the  Christian's 
Saviour.  And  shall  we — can  we — forget  the  hand  which 
has  thus  protected  and  shielded  us  in  the  dark  hour  of 
peril  and  terror  and  dismay  ?  No,  my  young  friends,  we 
have  been  taught  a  lesson  in  the  school  of  mourning 
and  anguish  which  can  never  be  effaced  from  the  heart 
of  sympathizing  humanity.  And  our  future  lives  will  be 
too  short  to  evince  the  sense  of  that  profound  obligation 
which  binds  us  forever  to  the  cause  of  truth  and  virtue, 
of  country  and  mankind,  of  religion  and  of  God. 

Under  the  auspices  of  my  distinguished  and  revered 
predecessor]- — the  devoted  pioneer  of  science  in  this 
then  almost  savage  wilderness,  and  the  nursing  father 
of    our   still    infant   and    still   unendowed   seminary  — 


*  The  Cholera.  f  James  Priestly,  LL.D. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  311 

nineteen  young  gentlemen  Avere  admitted  to  the  usual 
academic  degrees.  And  these  first  fruits  of  Cumberland 
College,  the  University  of  NasJivlUe  will  ever  be  proud  to 
acknowledge,  and  to  hold  up  as  illustrious  examples  to 
all  her  future  Alumni.  Five  of  these,  we  regret  to 
learn,  have  been  cut  down  in  the  morning  of  life 
and  hope,  of  high  promise  and  lofty  aspiring :  and  they 
survive  only  in  the  hearts  of  the  few  Avho  knew  and 
loved  them  as  sons,  as  brothers,  and  as  friends. 

One  hundred  and  ten  names  have  since  been  added  to 
the  catalogue  of  our  college  graduates  [exclusive  of 
honorary  members.]  And  of  these  we  mourn  the  pre- 
mature decease  of  four  gifted  youths,  whose  generous 
sympathy  and  support,  whose  moral  and  intellectual 
worth,  whose  private  and  public  character,  can  now  be 
estimated  only  by  the  glowing  picture  which  hallowed 
friendship  was  fain  to  portray.''' 

*  Alas !  who  can  tell  what  a  day  may  bring  forth  ?  Since  the 
above  paragraph  was  penned,  and  since  the  last  setting  sun,  another 
of  our  worthiest  and  most  eloquent  sons  has  been  added  to  this 
melancholy  catalogue.  And  again  we  mingle  our  tears  and  our 
sympathy  with  a  twice  stricken,  bereaved  and  disconsolate  circle  of 
endeared  relatives  and  friends.  Whose  loss,  in  this  world,  is  indeed 
irreparable,  and  above  all  human  power  to  estimate  or  to  alleviate. 
Let  them — let  us — bow  submissive  to  High  Heaven's  most  righteous 
decree :  and  endeavour  to  be  ourselves  also  ready,  at  any  moment,  for 
our  departure  to 

"  That  undiscovered  country,  from  whose  bourn 
No  traveller  returns." 

Oct.  2d  1834.  This  day,  another  of  the  Alumni,  Alphonso  Gibbs, 
Esq.,  of  the  class  of  1832,  died  at  the  house  of  his  father.  Gen.  Gibbs, 
in  this  vicinity.     Greatly  beloved  and  lamented  by  all  who  knew  him. 

The  total  number  of  Uving  Graduates  is  now  therefore  only  one 
hundred  and  nineteen. 


312  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Our  University  then  may  be  presumed  to  number, 
among  the  living,  one  hundred  and  twenty  individuals, 
[the  precise  number,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  is  120,] 
(exclusive  of  honorary  members,)  who  have  been  deco- 
rated with  her  laurel,  and  who  are  recognized  as  her 
sons  and  graduates.  To  these  may  be  added  about 
three  hundred  and  fifty  others,  who  have  been  educated, 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  within  her  walls ;  but  who 
did  not  find  it  convenient  to  remain  long  enough  her 
inmates  to  entitle  them  to  the  first  degree  in  the  Arts. 
How  many  of  the  latter  description  may  have  been  thus 
partially  trained  under  the  former  faculty,  I  have  not 
the  means  of  ascertaining.  Probably  not  less  than 
a  hundred.  Altogether  then,  five  or  six  hundred  young 
men  have  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  studj'ing  at  this 
institution,  and  of  acquiring  more  or  less  of  the  ele- 
ments of  a  liberal  education.  If  these  have  done,  are 
doing,  and  are  likely  to  do,  their  duty,  in  the  various 
relations,  pursuits,  professions,  and  offices  of  life,  it  will 
not  be  denied  that  the  University  has  rendered  the  State 
some  ser\ace.  The  tree  is  ever  known  by  its  fruits :  and 
by  these  it  will  be  judged.  Deeply  as  we  are  personally 
interested  in  the  fair  fame  and  prosperity  of  your  Alma 
Mater,  we  cheerfullj'  submit  her  reputation  and  her 
destiny  to  this  just  and  honourable  test.  We  ask  no 
stinted  indulgence,  no  condescending  favour,  no  construc- 
tive charity,  no  flattering  meed  of  common  place  ap- 
plause, no  conventional  unmeaning  compliments  which 
in  courtly  phrase  come  gently  to  the  ear  but  roughly  to 
the  heart, — no,  nothing  in  this  fashion  do  we  covet. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  313 

We  say  —  or  rather,  let  the  University  proiidlj^  say  — 
there  are  our  sons.  We  send  them  forth  into  the  world. 
And  by  the  world's  spontaneous  verdict  upon  their  train- 
ing and  their  bearing  will  we  abide.  We  calmly  and 
confidently  await  the  world's  decision :  and  we  feel 
assured  of  no  mortifying  disappointment.  Our  faith  is 
strong,  unwavering,  invincible.  And  our  purpose  to 
persevere  in  the  good  work,  which  has  thus  far  been 
signally  prospered  in  the  midst  of  every  species  of 
hinde ranee  and  discouragement,  cannot  be  shaken.  The 
tongue  which  now  speaks  our  high  resolve,  and  bids 
defiance  to  scrutiny,  to  prejudice,  to  jealousy,  to  coward- 
ice, to  calumnj^,  to  malevolence,  may  be  silent  in  the 
tomb  long  ere  the  glorious  victory  shall  be  achieved. 
But,  WE,  the  UNIVERSITY,  live  forever!  And  generations 
yet  unborn  shall  rejoice  in  our  triumphs,  and  pronounce 
the  eulogium  which  our  labours  will  have  nobly  won. 

It  is  true,  we  boast  of  no  rich  governmental  inheri- 
tance or  endowments — no  splendid  domain  in  the  unap- 
propriated Lands  within  our  own  territorial  limits,  or 
within  those  of  the  Nation  which  stretch  westward  over 
half  the  continent  still  unsubdued  and  unexplored. 
Such  a  fair  landed  domain  we  once  did  dream  of — but, 
•'like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision,"  it  has  evanished 
'■into  thin  air,"  under  the  potent  spell  of  the  political 
magician  :  or,  if  you  please,  under  the  wise  policy 
and  equitable  legislation  of  Tennessee's  much  honoured 
and  most  honoural)le  statesmen.  From  the  liberal 
grant  of  Congress,  then,  we  anticipate  no  benefit  what- 
ever :  at  least,  not  until  our  own  representatives  in  that 


314  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

august  body  shall  cordially  advocate  our  claims^  and 
boldly  present  our  appeal  to  the  justice,  honour,  and 
magnanimity  of  the  Nation.* 

We  count  not  on  the  State's  treasury,  nor  upon  legis- 
lative indemnification.  We  rely  not  upon  ecclesiastical 
patronage,  or  sectarian  zeal,  or  individual  munificence: 
nor,  indeed,  upon  any  of  the  usual  sources  of  pecuniary 
revenue  which  have  reared  and  sustained  so  many  flou- 
rishing institutions  in  other  sections  of  our  happy  Re- 
public. 

We  belong  to  no  sect  or  party  in  Church  or  State, 
We  open  our  portals  wide,  and  proffer  our  instructions 
freely  to  enterprising  moral  youth  of  every  political  and 
religious  creed  in  the  land.  Literature  and  science, 
language  and  philosophy,  morals  and  virtue,  unalloyed 
and  unclouded  by  the  dogmas  of  any  sect  or  school,  we 
inculcate  and  exemplify  as  best  we  can.  And  we  appeal 
to  the  common  sense  and  equity  of  mankind  for  the 
wisdom  of  our  system  and  the  honesty  of  our  pro- 
ceedings. 

We  are  the  staunch  uncompromising  advocate  of 
genuine  religion — of  pure  unadulterated  Christianity — 
but  in  all  matters  which  distinguish  one  class  or  sect  or 
church  from  another,  we  leave  our  pupils  to  parental 

*  We  mean  not,  however,  to  moralize  or  to  complain.  The  story 
of  our  wrongs  we  leave  to  the  honest  pen  of  the  future  historian. 
Our  title  deeds  we  commit  to  the  archives  of  the  world's  high  court 
of  chancery,  and  bequeath  them  as  a  black-letter  legacy  to  the  anti- 
quarian Cokes  and  Seldens  of  posterity,  to  illustrate  the  theory  of  our 
plastic  jurisprudence,  and  the  practical  omnipotence  of  our  popular 
parliaments. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  315 

guidance  and  discretion ;  and  to  the  ministerial  cares  of 
the  clergy  in  our  city  to  whom  they  severally  3  ield  a 
voluntary  preference.  Every  religious  denomination  in 
Tennessee  has  its  church  or  place  of  worship  in  Nash- 
ville; and  to  these  our  youth  have  free  access  at  all 
times.  And  they  are  required  to  attend  the  public 
preaching  of  the  gospel  precisely  as  parents  direct. 
With  their  religious  faith  or  peculiar  theological  creed 
we  never  intermeddle  in  the  slightest  degree.  That  we 
have  been  perfectly  catholic  and  perfectly  impartial  in 
this  momentous  and  delicate  concern  —  about  wdiich  the 
most  extraordinary  solicitude  and  jealousy  are  wont  to 
be  manifested — we  dare  venture  to  affirm.  And  we 
know  that  we  stand  this  day  before  the  great  public 
altogether  above  suspicion.  True,  we  have  been  and 
still  are  denounced  by  the  little  bigots,  and  sapient 
gossips,  and  loould  he  poj^es  of  all  sects  and  parties. 
But  their  petty  jealousy,  and  insidious  misrepresenta- 
tions and  unappeasable  malignancy,  we  heed  not.  Our 
course  is  fair,  and  honourable,  and  direct,  and  ever 
onward. 

That  we  are  making  a  doubtful  experiment,  in  the 
estimation  of  most  men,  we  are  fully  apprised.  That 
an  institution,  thus  unbefriended,  unendowed,  unsup- 
ported by  any  sect  or  party,  without  funds  or  patronage, 
should  ultimately  succeed,  is  scarcely  to  be  anticipated 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  events.  And  its  failure  has 
been  often  predicted,  even  by  those  whose  liberal  views 
and  sentiments  would  lead  them  most  heartily  to  rejoice 
in  the  discovery  that  they  were  no  prophets. 


316  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Where  then  is  the  ground  of  our  hope  and  of  our 
encouragement?  It  is  in  the  growing  strength  and 
moral  influence  of  our  own  enhghtened,  loyal,  and 
patriotic  sons — who  issue,  year  after  year,  from  our 
classic  halls,  imbued  with  the  chivalrous  spirit  and 
republican  virtue  of  the  brightest  age  of  Greek  and 
Roman  glory ;  and  animated  by  the  celestial  principles 
of  Christian  magnanimity  and  benevolence  —  and  whose 
voice  shall  yet  be  heard  by  a  generous  and  honest, 
though  hitherto  much  abused  and  misguided  people. 
It  is  in  these,  under  the  propitious  smiles,  and  over- 
ruling providence  of  the  Most  High,  that  we  place  our 
confidence  and  garner  up  our  soul's  fondest  aspirations. 
They  will  never  prove  recreant  or  traitorous.  The 
claims  of  Alma  Mater  upon  their  affections,  their  zeal, 
their  labours,  their  influence,  their  talents  and  their 
wealth,  will  ever  be  acknowledged  as  of  paramount  and 
everlasting  obligation. 

Such,  my  young  friends,  are  a  few  of  the  last  words 
which  the  University  may  be  supposed  to  address  to  you 
at  this  interesting  moment,  when  she  pronounces  her 
farewell  benediction  upon  your  heads,  and  offers  up  to 
Heaven  her  fervent  prayers  for  your  earthly  prosperity 
and  final  salvation. 

In  the  name  of  my  respected  colleagues,  I  congratu- 
late you  cordially  upon  the  happy  termination  of  your 
college  novitiate ;  and  upon  the  fair  prospect  of  profes- 
sional eminence  and  usefulness  which  now  lies  before 
you. 

On  leaving  college,  however,  you  will  have  escaped 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  317 

from  no  irksome  restraints,  because  none  have  ever  been 
imposed  by  us,  which  the  moral  sense  and  mature  reason 
of  all  good  citizens  would  not  voluntarily  impose  on 
themselves.  As  moral  agents — as  the  subjects  of  moral 
discipline — you  will  continue  through  life  under  the  same 
great  moral  code  of  rules  and  laws  which  the  University 
and  the  world  alike  recognize  as  of  universal  and  perpe- 
tual obligation.  Do  not  imagine,  therefore,  that  you  are 
about  to  enjoy  more  liberty,  or  a  greater  hcense,  either 
for  the  neglect  of  duty  or  the  infraction  of  any  positive 
statute  or  institution,  whether  human  or  divine. 

You  have  not  been  governed — we  have  never  sought 
to  govern  you — by  mere  arbitrary  or  magisterial  au- 
thority. We  have  laboured  to  inculcate  the  one  grand 
essential  doctrine  of  self-government ;  and  to  inspire  you 
with  those  just  sentiments  of  honour,  truth  and  virtue, 
Avhich  ought  ever  to  influence  and  to  regulate  your 
conduct.  In  a  word,  we  have  taught  you  to  govern 
yourselves ;  and  to  respect  yourselves.  We  have  never 
regarded  or  treated  you  as  schoolboys.  We  have  en- 
couraged you  to  feel,  to  think,  to  speak,  to  act — as  men, 
as  freemen,  as  gentlemen — but  with  the  modesty,  gentle- 
ness and  deferential  docility  which  always  characterize 
and  adorn  the  well-bred,  ingenuous  and  high-minded 
youth.  We  have  lived  together  as  friends  and  equals. 
Our  mutual  intercourse  has  been  maintained  by  a  mutual 
interchange  of  the  kindly  courtesies  which  our  several 
duties,  ages  and  circumstances  naturally  and  obviously 
prompted  and  enjoined. 

If  any  of  you  have  ever,  from  youthful  inadvertency 


318  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

or  indiscretion,  passed  tlie  boundary  of  strict  decorum — 
the  error  is  already  forgotten.  If  we  have  received  evil 
at  your  hands,  or  if  you  have  slighted  our  counsels  or 
instructions,  we  have  returned  good  for  evil,  — as  the 
literary  awards,  this  day  dispensed,  will  abundantly 
testify.  Henceforth  we  remember  only  your  virtues. 
Upon  these  we  shall  delight  to  dwell  and  to  expatiate : 
and  these  only  shall  we  speak  of  and  proclaim.  For,  of 
our  pupils,  the  world  never  hears  aught  from  us  but 
good.  In  all  their  future  conduct  we  take  a  deep 
and  lively  interest.  Our  influence  and  exertions  in 
their  behalf  will  never  be  expected  in  vain.  In  their 
fair  fame  and  prosperity  we  shall  rejoice.  And  every 
blessing  bestowed  on  them  will  be  reflected  on  ourselves, 
and  constitute  the  principal  ingredient  of  our  earthly 
felicity. 

As  we  have  aimed  to  render  you  masters  of  the  art 
of  self-government,  so  likewise  have  we  endeavoured 
to  manage  the  difiicult  process  of  instruction  in  such 
manner  as  to  make  the  work  your  own — a  pleasure  and 
not  a  task.  We  have  taught  you  how  to  study — how  to 
cultivate  your  own  minds — how  to  advance,  by  daily, 
and  easy,  and  certain  progress  in  every  scientific  and 
literary  department  which  you  may  be  inclined  to 
explore.  And  we  now  dismiss  you,  under  the  full 
persuasion,  that  you  have  learned  how  to  educate  your- 
selves; that  you  possess  the  faculty  and  the  desire  of 
intellectual  improvement  which  will  never  permit  you  to 
be  idle,  or  to  rest  satisfied  with  any  actual  attainments, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  319 

while   3-011  retain  the  power  to  enlarge  their  value  or 
amount. 

The  habit  of  self-government — of  self-instruction — of 
industrious  persevering  application,  of  thorough  inquiry, 
of  profound  investigation,  of  manl}^  independent  think- 
ing and  reflection,  of  legitimate  reasoning,  of  logical 
induction,  of  rigorous  demonstration,  of  discriminating 
unprejudiced  judgment,  of  resolutely  embracing  and 
maintaining  the  truth  and  the  right  whenever  and 
wherever  discovered  —  this  habit,  already  partially  ac- 
quired, will,  if  duly  confirmed  by  future  exertions, 
insure  you  an  honourable,  enlightened  and  command- 
ing influence  in  society. 

That  you  may  realize  all  the  bright  visions  which 
youthful  fancy  may  lawfully  indulge  —  that  you  may 
be  truly  great  and  truly  good  —  as  eminently  happy, 
honoured  and  useful,  as  talents,  learning  and  piety  can 
render  you — is  the  fervent  prayer  of  your  academical 
instructors  and  associates. 

Go  hence  in  charity  and  peace.  Fear  God,  and  keep 
his  commandments.  Seek  daily  supplies  of  wisdom  and 
instruction  in  the  holy  oracles  of  inspiration.  Let  the 
Bible  be  your  friend  and  counsellor.  Avoid  wicked 
companions,  seductive  pleasures,  corrupting  honours, 
degrading  avarice,  and  all  the  blandishments  of  a 
reckless  ambition.  Preserve  a  conscience  void  of  of- 
fence towards  God  and  towards  men.  In  prosperity  be 
meek  and  humble;  and  with  gratitude  acknowledge 
vour   heavenly  Benefactor:    and   in  adversity  you  will 


320  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

not  be  utterly  forsaken,  nor  overwhelmed  in  the  black- 
ness of  despair.  The  Sun  of  righteousness  will  illumine 
the  darkest  path,  and  shed  a  cheering  radiance  upon  the 
ruins  and  desolations  of  all  human  grandeur.  The  fiiry 
illusions  of  fervid  youth  must  soon  give  place  to  the 
sober  realities  of  manhood  and  old  age.  The  brilliancy 
of  genius,  the  hoarded  treasures  of  knowledge,  the 
splendour  of  wealth  and  power  and  rank  and  office, 
will  avail  nothing  in  the  last  great  conflict  with  the 
king  of  terrors.  The  whole  world  will  then  appear  too 
mean  a  price  to  offer  for  the  humblest  Christian  be- 
liever's hope. 

May  the  Christian's  hope,  and  the  Christian's  faith, 
and  the  Christian's  charity,  and  the  Christian's  joys,  and 
the  Christian's  heaven — all  be  yours ! 

The  blessing  of  the  Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost — the  one  living  and  true  God — be  upon  you, 
and  abide  with  you,  forever  and  ever.     Amen ! 


SPEECH   IN  BEHALF 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NASHVILLE. 


ANNIVERSARY  COMMENCEMENT, 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  NASHVILLE,  1837. 


I  HAVE  made  several  speeches  heretofore,  on  divers 
occasions,  in  behalf  of  the  University.  I  am  going  to 
trouble  you  again  with  some  remarks  upon  the  same 
very  unpopular  and  very  hackneyed  theme.  I  mean 
nmv  to  make  the  appeal  direct  to  the  good  citizens  of 
Nashville;  and  to  them  chiefly,  if  not  exclusively. 
In  the  first  place,  I  will  glance  at  a  few  objections 
which  are  currently  urged  or  insiduously  whispered 
against  the  University.  And,  in  the  second  place,  I 
shall  endeavour  to  present  a  score  or  two  of  the  many 
thousand  considerations  which  ought  to  induce  you  to 
sustain  it. 

I.  1.  The  first  class  of  objections,  which  we  notice, 
may  be  styled  personal.  These  refer  to,  and  implicate 
more  or  less,  the  personal  character  and  qualifications  of 
the  trustees,  president,  professors,  and  other  officers  of 
the  institution.  Of  the  trustees,  I  shall  say  nothing. 
The  Board  consists  of  ex-presidents,  governors,  senar 
tors,  members  of  Congress  and  of  the  State  Legislature, 
magistrates,  lawyers,  physicians  and  farmers:  of  men 
who  have  filled,  or  who  now  fill,  the  highest  and  most 


323 


324  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

respectable  offices  in  the  nation :  whom  the  people  of 
the  Union  and  of  this  Commonwealth  have  delighted  to 
honour,  and  to  whose  wisdom  and  integrity  they  have 
confided  the  dearest  interests  of  their  country.  If  such 
men  cannot  be  safely  trusted  to  manage  the  concerns  of 
a  university,  to  whom  shall  we  look  for  a  superior  or 
better  superintendence?  Probably  no  other  Board  of 
Trustees  in  the  United  States  can  exhibit  an  array  of 
names  so  well  known,  or  so  eminently  distinguished,  or 
so  universally  popular.  And  if  you  are  not  satisfied 
with  these,  you  must  be  hard  to  please  indeed. 

I  shall  pass  the  Faculty,  also,  without  defence  or 
eulogy.  Let  each  member  stand  or  fall  according  to 
his  deserts.  Let  him  be  judged  by  his  acts  and  by  his 
peers.  A  president  or  professor  may  be  incompetent, 
physically,  morally,  intellectually  —  or  he  may  be  culpa- 
bly negligent  and  inefficient.  But  then,  he  is  removable 
at  the  pleasure  of  the  Board :  and,  at  the  worst,  he  can- 
not live  always.  He  will  soon  be  off  the  stage  and  out 
of  the  way.  His  incapacity  therefore,  whether  great  or 
small,  real  or  pretended,  ought  never  to  be  paraded  be- 
fore an  intelligent  public,  as  jeoparding  the  existence  or 
permanent  prosperity  of  the  University  itself.  He,  I 
repeat,  may,  at  any  moment,  be  got  rid  of:  and  at  most, 
he  is  but  an  accident,  a  circumstance — while  the  Univer- 
sity lives  forever.  You  would  not  denounce  your  coun- 
try or  your  country's  Constitution  and  republican  form 
of  government,  because  you  might  not  happen  to  ap- 
prove the  existing  administration.  The  latter  you  may 
assail  and  oppose  with  all  your  faculties  of  reason  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  dZO 

aimiment  and  ridicule;  while  vet  you  will  stand  bv  your 
country  and  the  Constitution  and  the  republican  sj^stem, 
though  a  world  w^ere  to  rise  up  in  arms  against  you.  So, 
in  like  manner,  stand  by  the  University,  whatever  ma}' 
be  the  character  of  its  temporary  governors  and  teach- 
ers. If  the  University  be  in  itself  a  good  thing,  or  ca- 
pable of  being  made  good :  do  not  desert  or  renounce  it, 
merely  because  some  of  its  non-essential  appendages  may 
not  be  particularly  acceptable  to  your  critical  judgment 
or  keener  sagacity. 

2.  The  second  class  of  objections  assume  a  iKuiy 
complexion.  Party  men,  whether  political  or  religious, 
are  apt  to  regard  everything  with  partial  eyes  which 
belongs  to  their  own  party;  and  to  frown  upon  what- 
ever is  either  neutral  or  lukewarm  or  dissentient  or 
adverse.  They  would  have  a  party  college  —  a  political 
or  sectarian  college. — A  hot-bed  for  the  rearing  of  politi- 
cal partisans  or  religious  zealots  and  sectarian  bigots.  A 
college  which  disclaims  party  attachments  is  very  likely 
to  be  repudiated  by  all  parties.  Our  University  occupies 
a  position  somewhat  peculiar.  Its  trustees  are  composed 
of  very  decided  political  leaders  and  champions  of  both 
the  great  parties  which  divide  our  country  at  the  present 
crisis.  Of  the  precise  political  creed  or  bias  of  the  Fa- 
culty, the  speaker  is  entirely  ignorant.  He  knows  not 
the  politics  of  any  of  his  colleagues.  He  has  never 
conversed  with  them  on  the  subject:  and  he  has  never 
heard  an  avowal  of  principles  or  predilections  from  one 
of  them.  He  cares  not  what  their  politics  are,  or  for 
whom  thev  vote.     Thus  it  is  also  in  regard  to  relidous 


326  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

opinions.  Both  trustees  and  faculty  belong  to  different 
sects  and  denominations.  And  the  students  are  left  to 
their  own  free  choice,  or  to  parental  guidance,  in  both 
religion  and  politics.  Their  liberty  has  never  been  in- 
fringed or  interfered  with  in  either  respect.  No  attemj^t 
has  ever  been  made  to  proselyte  a  single  youth  to  any 
ftiith,  political  or  religious.  We  all  profess  to  be  Chris- 
tians and  republicans :  and  we  fain  would  have  our  pu- 
pils to  be  honest  Christians  and  consistent  republicans. 
This  is  the  utmost  of  our  aim,  in  all  our  labours,  instruc- 
tions and  exhortations — so  far  as  politics  and  religion 
are  in  question.  They  may  be  Methodists,  Presbyte- 
rians, Baptists,  Episcopalians,  Roman  Catholics,  Quakers 
—  Whigs,  Democrats,  Federalists,  Conservatives  —  we 
care  not — so  that  they  are  Christians  and  patriots.  We 
go  for  the  Constitution  of  our  country  and  for  the  reli- 
gion of  Christendom:  and  we  stop  not  to  notice  or  to 
inculcate  the  dogmas  of  any  school,  sect  or  party.  Such 
was  the  system  avowed  at  the  commencement  of  our 
connexion  with  the  University  and  with  this  community. 
We  gave,  to  the  public  a  solemn  pledge  to  this  effect  at 
the  outset.  Have  we  ever  departed  from  our  system  or 
failed  to  redeem  our  pledge  ?  We  challenge  the  severest 
scrutiny:  and  we  defy  contradiction.  Our  University 
has  never  enlisted  under  the  banners  of  any  sect  or 
party,  and  we  trust  she  never  will.  The  youth  of  all 
parties  and  of  all  sects  are  equally  favoured,  protected 
and  respected  within  her  walls.  And  when  they  cease 
to  be  so,  it  will  be  time  enough  to  complain  and  to  sound 
the  tocsin  of  alarm. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  327 

3.  A  third  objection  arises  from  the  locality  of  the 
institution.  Nashville  is  a  gay,  dissipated,  fashionable 
place — quite  unfit  for  boys — dangerous  to  their  morals 
and  to  their  purses.  Is  it  so?  Then,  whose  is  the 
fault?  Is  Nashville  too  wicked — too  grossly  wicked — 
to  be  intrusted  with  a  University?  Dare  you  utter 
such  a  plea,  or  pronounce  so  harsh  a  verdict  ujDon  your 
own  civic  character?  Will  the  citizens  of  Nashville 
gravely  affirm  that  they  are  so  immoral,  licentious  and 
profligate,  that  the  juvenile  stranger  may  not  venture 
to  reside  or  sojourn  among  them  without  peril  to  his 
virtue  ?  or  will  they  permit  others  thus  to  asperse  and  to 
slander  them?  That  some  of  our  respectable  and  intel- 
ligent citizens  have  asserted  and  do  believe  that  this 
little  city  is  too  wicked  for  a  college  to  prosper  among 
them,  is  true :  for  I  have  heard  this  opinion  and  belief 
expressed  with  all  the  seriousness  and  regret  of  deep- 
rooted  conviction.  It  is  obvious  that  the  prevalence 
of  such  a  notion  among  ourselves  and  its  publicity 
abroad,  must  exert  a  sinister  influence  upon  the  pros- 
pects and  fortunes  of  an  institution  just  struggling  for 
bare  existence,  and  prove  extremely  discouraging  to  the 
zeal  and  eflbrts  of  its  friends.  In  the  abstract,  or  speak- 
ing absolutely,  the  objection  may  be  well  founded.  But 
comparatively,  or  in  reference  to  other  places,  it  is 
groundless  and  impertinent. 

Nashville  is  bad  enough,  no  doubt.  But  it  is  not 
worse  than  other  cities,  -towns  and  villages — whether 
large  or  small — throughout  the  Union.  You  will  search 
in  vain  for  a  purer  moral  atmosphere  either  within  the 


328  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

limits  of  our  own  Commonwealth,  or  in  the  adjacent 
States,  or  even  beyond  the  mountains.  If  Nashville, 
then,  be  too  wicked  for  a  college,  it  follows,  by  parity 
of  reasoning,  that  a  college  ought  not  and  cannot  be 
sustained  in  any  city  or  town  in  the  United  States — 
or  in  the  world.  For  vice  abounds  everywhere:  and 
to  an  extent  frequently,  which  would  cause  even  Nash- 
ville to  blush  at  the  thought  of  a  comparison.  And  3'et 
colleges  do  flourish,  and  have  flourished  for  ages,  in 
hundreds  of  these  graceless  cities  and  dissolute  coun- 
try villages.  This  argument  or  objection  then  is  inap- 
plicable and  nugatory.  It  is  urged,  probably,  by  those 
who  know  little  or  nothing  about  the  real  character  and 
condition  of  other  places.  Whatever  is  e\dl  and  perni- 
cious within  the  range  of  our  daily  observation,  we 
notice,  and  reflect  upon,  and  magnify,  and  talk  about : 
while  of  distant  towns,  we  hear  nothing  but  the  good 
and  the  fair  and  the  favourable.  And  "distance  always 
lends  enchantment  to  the  view." 

Again,  if  Nashville  be  really  too  wicked  for  a  college ; 
it  is  too  wicked  for  schools  of  an\'  description ;  it  is  too 
wicked  even  for  a  family  residence.  No  parent  ought 
to  live  here.  His  children  will  be  obnoxious  to  all  sorts 
of  malign  influences  from  their  birth  onward,  through 
every  stage  of  domestic  discipline;  and  in  spite  of  all 
his  vigilance  and  solicitude.  You  ought  instantly  to 
depart  from  a  place  wdiich  you  pronounce  so  abominably 
depraved,  and  so  imminently  hazardous  to  the  welflire 
of  your  oflspring.  But  here  you  are,  and  here  are  jour 
sons  and  daughters,  and  here  ^ou  and  thev  are  likelv  to 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  329 

abide.  Some  of  you,  perhaps,  may  calculate  to  evade 
both  the  argument  and  the  dangers,  by  resolving  to  edu- 
cate your  sons  at  distant  seminaries — where  they  will 
learn  better  morals  and  acquire  more  correct  habits. 
Very  well — by  and  by — after  three  or  four  years  of  rt- 
nowning  abroad  —  they  will  return  home.  What  now 
are  their  moral  principles  and  habits  ?  Are  they  supe- 
rior in  these  or  any  other  respects,  to  the  home-bred 
natives  of  the  West?  Are  they  noio,  after  all  this 
foreign  training  and  lavish  expenditure,  the  immacu- 
late paragons  of  virtue  and  intellectual  refinement, 
which  your  fond  hopes  had  anticipated  or  your  dream- 
ing fancies  had  pictured?  Are  they  proof  against  all 
temptation  and  example  and  solicitation?  Do  they 
walk  erect  amidst  the  moral  darkness  and  desolations 
which  surround  them?  Let  past  experience  answer 
these  and  all  similar  interrogatories.  The  truth  of  the 
matter  is,  the  streams  never  rise  higher  than  the  foun- 
tain whence  they  flow.  Home,  after  all,  is  the  source 
and  the  standard  of  all  morality  to  children.  In  refer- 
ence to  this  most  important  concern,  the  poet  has  philo- 
sophically declared  that. 

"Just  as  the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree's  inclined." 

It  matters  little  where  our  youth  learn  language  and 
science — at  schools  however  celebrated  for  sound  learn- 
ing and  rigid  discipline — they  will  seldom  appear  ambi- 
tious to  attain  a  degree  of  moral  excellence  above  their 
fellow-citizens  and  every  day  associates.  They  will 
naturallv  resume  the  tone  and  bearing,  the  manners  and 


000  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

customs,  the  sentiments  and  prejudices  of  their  native 
city.  Its  fashionable  follies  and  amusements  and  vices 
will  be  eagerl}^  pursued  and  practised.  Even  the  dread 
of  being  accounted  singular  or  austere  or  proud  or  un- 
accommodating, will  often  prompt  them  to  compliances 
and  excesses  which  they  otherwise  might  have  resisted 
or  avoided. 

The  standard  of  morals  has  never  been  elevated  by 
such  a  process  in  any  community.  The  reformation 
must  commence  at  home,  and  be  consummated  at  home. 
If  you  would  train  up  moral  children,  you  must  make 
yourselves  moral.    And  if  you  become  moral  yourselves, 

1  take  it  your  city  will  be  moral.  You  complain  that 
your  city  is  immoral — do  you?  Pray,  who  have  ren- 
dered your  city  immoral,  and  who  keep  it  immoral?  Is 
it  not  your  own  work?  Do  not  parents  govern  the  city? 
Do  not  parents  create,  countenance  and  sustain  every 
nuisance,  and  every  species  of  noxious  dissipation  and 
degrading  amusement  which  abound  in  our  midst? 
What  do  you  mean  by  complaining,  and  lamenting, 
and  whining,  and  mourning,  and  fretting,  and  preaching, 
and  praying,  and  denouncing  ?  Why  do  you  not  arise, 
in  all  the  majesty  of  your  resistless  and  united  strength, 
and  resolve  forthwith  to  purify  your  own  premises  ;  and 
to  put  down  every  stalking  monster  of  iniquity  and 
abomination  which  is  rioting  upon  the  heart's  blood  of 
your  unprotected  offspring?  Will  you  get  drunk,  and 
expect  your  children  to  be  sober?  Will  you  profane 
the  name  of  your  Maker,  and  expect  your  children  to 
hallow  it?     Will  you  desecrate  the  Christian  Sabbath. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  331 

and  expect  your  children  to  keep  it  holy?  Will  you 
frequent  the  theatre,  the  race-course,  or  the  gaming 
table;  and  expect  your  children  to  shun  and  to  aljhor 
them? 

Ah,  no — you  will  reply — we  perpetrate  none  of  these 
enormities  ourselves.  We  set  a  very  good  example,  and 
we  do  not  withhold  seasonable  counsel  and  reproof  and 
admonition.  But  what  can  we  do?  The  whole  world 
is  against  us.  Our  city  is  full  of  grog-shops  and  groce- 
ries and  other  villanous  establishments — duly  licensed 
and  authorized  by  law  to  sell  whisky  and  to  create 
drunkards,  and  to  ruin  our  children  and  servants — 
and  all  this  to  support  government,  and  to  enable  a 
few  honest  fellows  to  get  a  comfortable  living.  And 
this  is  your  plea — is  it?  It  shall  not  avail  you.  If 
your  rulers  misgovern  you  or  abuse  your  confidence, 
turn  them  out,  and  elect  better  men.  I  defy  any  mor- 
tal to  offer  the  semblance  of  a  reason  for  the  existence 
of  a  single  grog-shop  in  our  land ;  or  for  permitting  any 
man  to  retail  inebriating  liquors  to  minors  or  servants, 
or  to  others  to  be  drunk  at  his  own  bar  or  upon  his  own 
premises.  This  is  one  of  the  most  deplorable  evils  of 
vicious  and  perverted  legislation  with  which  our  country 
is  afflicted.  It  is  precisely  the  evil  which  has  hitherto 
proved,  and  which  is,  at  this  moment,  the  most  perni- 
cious to  the  well-being  of  all  our  colleges  without  ex- 
ception. It  has  been  proclaimed  a  thousand  times :  and 
legislatures  have  been  everywhere  appealed  to  and  en- 
treated in  vain  to  abate  it.  The  late  Governor  of  Soutli 
C'arolina,  in  his  last  message  to  the  legislature,  animad- 


332  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

verted,  in  the  most  indignant  and  eloquent  language,  upon 
the  mischievous  influence  of  the  wine  and  whisky  shops 
of  Columbia  upon  the  morals  and  discipline  of  the  State's 
University  in  that  metropolis.  The  public  complain  of 
the  dissipation  of  colleges  and  of  the  riotous  conduct  of 
the  students,  and  none  more  loudly  than  our  politicians, 
our  judges  and  statesmen,  and  yet  they  very  deliberately 
legalize  and  sanction  and  uphold  the  means  and  instru- 
ments which  effect  all  the  mischief.  Verily,  they  are 
wise,  sagacious,  consistent,  magnanimous  gentlemen ! 

It  would  be  useless  therefore  to  seek  for  a  college  or 
school,  in  all  the  length  and  breadth  of  this  mighty  Re- 
public, where  intoxicating  liquors  cannot  be  procured; 
or  where  the  students  may  not  indulge  in  their  use, 
or  get  drunk,  if  so  inchned.  If  we  would  educate  our 
sons  where  rum  and  grog-shops  cannot  be  found,  we 
must  send  them  to  Robinson  Crusoe's  Island  or  to  the 
Penitentiary.  Here,  by  the  way,  I  may  just  remark, 
that  the  Penitentiary  is  the  only  University  which  the 
government  of  Tennessee  has  condescended  to  build  up 
and  to  patronize.  This  is  our  grand  State  University : 
and  the  work  of  education  is  said  to  be  going  bravely  on 
within  its  w^alls.  It  is  already  the  people's  favourite: 
and  its  accomplished  graduates  will,  no  doubt,  in  due 
time,  occupy  a  prominent  position  in  our  most  respect- 
able and  enlightened  community. 

Nashville,  I  have  said,  is  bad  enough:  and  I  have 
said  also,  that  it  is  not  worse  than  other  places.  I  will 
add  moreover,  for  your  especial  edification  and  encou- 
ragement, that  I  do  not  esteem  it  quite  so  bad  as  many 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  333 

other  towns  with  which  I  am  acquainted.  I  know  .some- 
thing of  Eastern  colleges  and  cities,  and  of  the  conduct 
and  habits  of  their  pupils  and  other  youth;  and  I  de- 
liberately assert  that  our  own  students  are  at  least  as 
orderly,  temperate,  decorous  and  gentlemanly  in  their 
general  deportment,  and  as  decidedly  moral  in  their 
habits,  as  were  those  of  any  Eastern  institution  what- 
ever a  dozen  years  ago.  I  then  arrived  at  the  conclu- 
sion, after  much  observation  and  experience,  that  our 
Southern  and  Western  youth  might  be  more  safelj-  edu- 
cated at  home  than  abroad :  and  I  have  seen  no  reasons 
since  to  change  my  opinion,  but  very  many  to  confirm 
it.  This  declaration,  however,  is  not  intended  as  a  salvo 
or  apology  for  anything  w^rong,  defective,  or  vicious 
in  our  own  political  or  social  organization.  We  have 
much  to  deplore  and  very  much  to  reform.  I  maintain 
that  Nashville  ought  not  to  be  content  with  being  as 
good  as  her  neighbours.  She  ought  to  asj^ire  to  the 
highest  degree  of  attainable  moral  excellence.  Suppose 
now,  that  Nashville  could  be  made,  and  should  become, 
confessedly,  the  most  moral,  peaceful,  temperate,  tran- 
quil, polished,  intelligent,  virtuous  town  upon  this 
continent;  and  that  her  schools  of  every  order,  and 
description  should  be  inferior  to  none  in  the  land : 
what  would  not  be  the  inevitable  and  immediate  re- 
sult ?  Why,  to  be  sure,  every  good  man  would  wish  to 
reside  here ;  and  every  wase  parent  w^ould,  at  almost 
any  sacrifice,  endeavour  to  educate  his  children  here. 
And  no  man  can  estimate  the  increase  wdiich  would 
thence  accrue  to  the  w^ealth  and  population  of  the  city. 


334  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

I  presume  that  such  a  revolution  in  our  moral  condition 
would  alone  do  more  towards  enriching  us  than  all 
other  causes  and  means  put  together. 

4.  A  fourth  objection  is  grounded  upon  the  supposed 
or  assumed  inutility  or  inefficiency  of  a  college  educa- 
tion. Your  college-bred  youth,  after  all,  we  are  told, 
are  not  superior  to  other  3'outh.  What  do  they  learn 
at  college  which  may  not  be  learned  elsewhere  ?  How 
many  drones  and  idlers  and  blockheads  do  not  currently 
issue  from  our  colleges?  What  are  they  good  for?  They 
are  neither  qualified  for  the  learned  professions,  nor  for 
any  active  business  or  manual  labour.  True,  nianj^  lads 
go  to  college,  and  remain  years  at  college,  to  very  little 
purpose.  I  will  tell  you  why  and  wherefore.  In  the 
first  place  :  Multitudes  enter  college  too  young.  This  is 
a  radical  error.  College  discipline  is  not  adapted  to 
very  young  persons.  They  cannot  be  made  to  feel  and 
act  as  men,  while  they  are  children.  The  college  is  not 
designed  for  such.  In  the  second  place:  They  enter 
college  frequently,  also,  without  the  requisite  literary 
qualifications.  They  are  destitute  of  the  necessary 
amount  of  elementary  knowledge.  They  have  not 
learned  how  to  study — by  themselves — in  their  rooms 
— without  the  presence  and  constant  aid  of  their  teach- 
ers. And,  of  course,  they  waste  their  time  in  frivolous 
sports  or  mischievous  pranks  or  desultory  reading. 
They  seldom  conquer  these  first  difficulties.  They  do 
not  know  how  to  avail  themselves  of  the  means  and 
facilities  of  instruction  which  a  college  furnishes — such 
as  lectures,  books,  specimens,  apparatus,  experiments. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  OOO 

111  the  third  place :  Not  a  few  have  been  spoiled  at 
home.  Their  habits  are  irregular  and  vicious.  Thej 
will  not  be  governed.  They  resist  or  spurn  all  au- 
thority and  control.  They  affect  to  be  independent  of 
college  rules  and  restraints.  They  fancy  themselves 
young  gentlemen — far  above  the  servile  condition  of 
the  orderly  schoolboy — no  longer  amenable  to  the  law 
or  the  birch  of  the  pedagogue  —  and  yet  incapable  of 
appreciating  any  generous  appeal  addressed  to  their 
sense  of  honour  and  shame,  to  their  interests  or  ambi- 
tion. They  occupy  an  anomalous  or  transitional  position 
— a  sort  of  hetweenity,  to  use  one  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  ex- 
pressive neologisms.  They  can  neither  be  chastised  with 
the  rod,  nor  subdued  by  reason  or  argument  or  admoni- 
tion or  reproof  They  are  utterly  impracticable :  and  the 
sooner  they  run  off  to  the  army  or  the  navy,  the  better 
for  them  and  the  college.  I  advise  all  parents  who  can- 
not or  do  not  govern  their  sons  at  home,  never  to  send 
them  to  college  with  the  delusive  expectation  that  they 
will  be  governed  there.  Or  if  their  habits  are  vicious, 
let  them  not  suppose  that  the  college  will  reform  them. 
Such  a  miracle  will  never  be  realized.  On  the  contrar}', 
it  has  been  to  me  a  source  of  animating  consolation, 
amidst  many  discouragements,  and  of  profound  gratitude 
to  Heaven,  that,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  be- 
lief, not  an  individual  3-outh,  who  had  been  judiciously 
trained  at  home  and  well  taught  at  school,  and  possessed 
of  correct  principles  and  habits,  has  been  hitherto  ren- 
dered worse  by  a  connexion  with  our  university. 

In  the  fourth  place:  One  of  the  most  frequent  and 


336  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

prolific  causes  of  disappointment,  is  the  practi<;e  of 
sending  boys  to  college  to  learn  a  part  only  of  the 
prescribed  course  of  study.  Or,  in  other  words,  to 
become  irregular  students — as  they  are  technically  and 
very  significantly  styled.  This  is  a  great  evil — particu- 
larly in  our  Western  institutions.  Youth,  thus  indulged, 
are  left  very  much  at  their  own  discretion.  They  study 
what  they  please  and  when  they  please.  They  are  not 
candidates  for  degrees.  And  they  care  very  little  about 
their  standing  as  scholars,  or  their  proficiency  in  any  de- 
partment of  literature  or  science.  When  they  have 
lounged  away  a  few  sessions  or  months,  they  return 
to  their  parents  and  friends,  profess  to  have  completed 
their  studies  at  the  University;  and  pass  as  living 
specimens  and  evidences  of  the  absolute  nothingness 
of  the  University  system.  I  do  not  mean  to  intimate 
that  every  person  who  enters  a  college  should  be  re- 
quired to  study  the  whole  course  usually  prescribed 
for  graduation ;  or  that  none  can  derive  advantage  from 
the  study  of  a  part  of  said  course.  Many  young  men, 
of  sufficient  age  and  stability  of  character,  may  doubtless 
be  intrusted  with  a  discretionary  power  in  this  respect, 
which  would  be  dangerous  to  others.  Some,  from  the 
want  of  pecuniary  resources,  or  from  defects  in  their 
early  education  which  they  think  themselves  too  old 
to  remedy,  or  from  being  destined  to  a  particular 
vocation  which  renders  the  knowledge  of  certain  sci- 
ences or  languages  desirable  or  indispensable,  or  for 
other  obvious  and  satisfiictory  reasons,  ought  to  be  in- 
dulged  to   the   extent   of  their   wishes   or   necessities. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  66t 

Such  cases,  however,  could  be  easily  provided  for,  as 
they  ever  have  been,  without  detriment  to  the  institu- 
tion, and  much  to  the  benefit  of  the  parties  thus  accom- 
modated. I  take  pleasure,  on  this  occasion,  in  bearing- 
testimony  to  the  good  conduct  and  persevering  diligence 
of  many  of  our  own  irregulars  while  at  college,  and  to 
their  successful  and  honourable  career,  as  citizens,  ever 
since.  But  where  no  specialties  exist  to  justif}-  a  relaxa- 
tion or  departure  from  the  established  order,  parents  act 
unadvisedly  and  injudiciously  in  allowing  their  sons  am" 
license  or  option  in  the  case.  They  are  sure  to  abuse  it. 
The  Faculty  are  always  the  best  judges  in  these  matters, 
or  they  are  not  fit  for  their  station  and  are  unworthy  to 
be  trusted  at  all. 

And  here  I  am  led  to  notice  a  fiftli  source  of  failure 
or  of  parental  disappointment  and  mortification.  It  is 
the  prevalent  custom  or  practice  of  assuming  to  be  wiser 
than  the  children's  instructors.  The  latter,  at  best,  have 
but  a  sorry  and  most  unthankful  ofiice  to  discharge. 
Every  father  and  mother,  uncle  and  amit,  brother,  sister 
and  cousin — every  big  man  and  every  little  man  in  the 
village  —  every  newspaper  scribbler  and  every  youthful 
orator — and  everybody  else — is  a  judge  and  a  critic 
and  a  reformer  and  a  very  Solomon  upon  the  subject 
and  mystery  of  education.  Upon  this  theme  they  can 
all  dogmatize,  in  the  most  confident  and  supercilious 
strain  of  dictatorial  superiority.  Every  little  master 
and  every  little  miss,  long  before  ihey  reach  their  teens, 
have  learned  to  enact  the  spy  and  the  censor  upon  the 
discipline  and  the  code  and  the  system  and  the  manners 
VOL.  I.  22 


338  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

of  the  laborious  veteran  schoolmaster  of  half  a  ceiituiy's 
experience.  It  is  a  misfortune  that  every  human  crea- 
ture understands  the  art  and  the  science  of  education  so 
much  better  than  do  our  teachers  themselves.  We  all 
cheerfully  concede  a  measure  at  least  of  professional 
superiority  to  our  lawyer  and  physician,  to  our  tailor 
and  barber,  to  our  cook  and  coachman;  and  we  repose 
some  degree  of  confidence  in  their  skill  and  judgment. 
But  alas,  for  the  hard  worked  and  hard  working  peda- 
gogue !  He  can  expect  neither  sympathy  nor  justice 
nor  candour  from  any  quarter.  Unless,  mdeed,  he  will 
himself  set  up  for  a  radical  reformer — adopt  the  innova- 
ting spirit  of  the  age — denounce  all  existing  schools  and 
systems  —  declare  himself  the  people's  devoted  servant, 
and  withal,  the  greatest  genius  and  most  modest  person- 
age in  the  world — profess  to  teach  all  sciences,  arts  and 
languages,  without  pain  or  effort  on  the  part  of  his 
pupils,  and  in  almost  no  time  —  then,  verily,  he  will 
be  ]3uffed  and  lauded  and  courted  and  caressed  and 
rewarded, — to  the  utter  amazement  and  mortal  discom- 
fiture of  every  honest,  plodding,  orthodox  old  Busby 
and  Parr  and  Wyttenbach  in  the  land.  Quackery  and 
empiricism  and  pretension  and  experimenting  and  mys- 
tification are  the  order  of  the  day  among  the  people's 
honoured  schoolmasters,  as  well  as  among  their  favour- 
ite lawyers  and  doctors  and  parsons  and  vagabond  ocio- 
llsts  and  political  conjurers. 

Again,  sixthly:  Parents  ruin  their  sons  by  allowing 
them  too  much  money.  Upon  this  point,  much  might  be 
said.    The  fact  is  admitted  and  deplored  at  every  college 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  339 

in  the  world.  The  remedy  or  rather  preventive  is  with 
the  parents.  If  they  will  not  withhold  the  means  of 
licentious  indulgence,  they  must  bear  the  blame  and 
share  the  disgrace. 

But  with  all  these  drawbacks  and  obstacles  and 
concessions  and  allowances,  without  stopping  to  specify 
any  more,  the  University  has  educated,  and  is  educating, 
a  sufficient  number  of  meritorious  talented  youth  to 
confront  the  most  skeptical  and  cavilling  objector.  We 
can  muster  as  noble  a  band  of  accomplished  alumni, 
as,  from  the  age  and  circumstances  of  the  Institution, 
ought  reasonably  to  be  demanded  at  our  hands.  You 
may  view  them  and  scan  them  and  mark  them  in  the 
legislative  halls  of  the  nation  and  of  several  of  the 
States — in  all  the  liberal  professions  —  in  public  life 
and  in  private — as  magistrates,  statesmen,  editors,  law^- 
yers,  physicians,  merchants,  farmers,  teachers,  ministers 
and  soldiers.  Their  Alma  Mater  is  not  ashamed  of 
them.  Nor  does  she  fear  any  comparison  which  may 
be  instituted  between  them  and  the  graduates  of  any 
college  or  university  at  the  East  or  the  West.  By  these 
she  is  willing  to  be  judged:  and  by  these  let  the  people 
judge  for  themselves.  Here  the  appeal  lies  to  palpable 
facts,  to  results,  to  fruits  —  which  cannot  deceive,  and 
which  cannot  be  mistaken. 

5.  A  fifth  ctcl  cajjfandnm  objectioij,  which  is  upon 
the  lips  of  every  demagogue  and  every  aspiring  syco- 
phant of  the  sovereign  people,  runs  in  this  wise.  The 
university  is  designed  exclusively  for  the  rich  —  for 
the  aristocracy — and  not  for  the  poor,  the  democracy. 


340  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

the  great  mass  of  our  labouring  productive  classes. 
This  species  of  sophistry  can  rarely  be  refuted,  because 
it  is  never  believed  by  the  canting  knaves  who  employ 
it,  and  because  those  upon  whose  ignorance  and  cre- 
dulity it  is  designed  to  operate,  are  seldom  accessible,  at 
least,  on  occasions  when  truth  and  intellect  usually 
assert  their  claims.  I  will,  however,  briefly  advert 
to  two  or  three  items  or  heads  of  argument  in  reply. 

1st.  The  man  who  affects  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the 
poor — who  seeks  to  arouse  among  them  a  spirit  of 
discontentment,  and  of  jealousy  and  hostility  towards  the 
rich — who  is  perpetually  haranguing  and  blustering  and 
clamouring  about  their  rights  and  their  wrongs — with  a 
view  to  his  own  political  advancement  —  may  always 
be  noted  as  a  selfish,  heartless,  intriguing,  unprincipled 
office  hunter.  He  cares  nothing  about  the  poor.  And 
when  successful,  he  will  be  the  first  to  turn  his  back 
upon  them  in  scorn  and  to  trample  them  in  the  dust. 
Such  has  ever  been  the  course  pursued  by  the  popular 
demagogue.  For  a  season,  and  just  so  long  as  it  may 
suit  his  purposes,  he  is  the  bold,  zealous,  unflinching, 
furious  champion  of  the  suffering,  oppressed,  plundered, 
priest-ridden,  bank-ridden,  university-ridden,  aristocracy- 
ridden  poor.  They  believe  him,  trust  him,  vote  for  him, 
fight  for  him,  huzza  for  him,  toast  him,  worship  him, 
bear  him  onward  and  upward,  until  they  behold  him 
safe  in  the  palace  and  upon  the  throne :  and  then  again 
they  shout  hosannas,  and  long  live,  my  lord,  the  Pro- 
tector of  the  Commonwealth  and  the  Defender  of  the 
poor!     But  the  tragedy  or  the  comedy  well  over,  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  341 

the  delirium  passed  awa}^,  and  they  are  astounded  to 
find  themselves  as  fiir  beneath  the  footstool  of  their  once 
familiar  Cromwell  or  Robespierre  as  they  had  ever  been 
beneath  the  regal  pomp  of  the  hated  Stuart  or  Bourbon. 
Now,  how  shall  the  poor  be  disabused  of  this  folly  ?  how 
shall  they  be  disenchanted,  disinthralled,  emancipated, 
and  enabled  to  act  for  themselves?  Send  them  to  the 
University ;  where  the  Hampdens  and  Sidneys  and 
Pyms  and  Fletchers  and  Lockes  and  Miltons  and  La 
Fayettes  were  duly  qualified  to  comprehend  the  rights 
of  man — and  of  all  classes  of  men,  without  distinction 
or  exception. 

But,  2dly.  K  it  be  true  that  none  but  the  rich  can 
avail  themselves  of  the  privileges  of  a  college ;  why 
should  they  be  obstructed  or  opposed  in  this  particular 
use  of  their  wealth?  K  the  rich  choose  to  erect  and 
endow  and  sustain  colleges  for  their  own  special  benefit : 
may  they  not  do  so  without  let  or  hinderance  ?  May  they 
not  indulge  their  fancy  or  caprice  or  vanity  or  ostenta- 
tion, if  you  please,  in  this  matter  of  colleges  as  well  as 
in  a  thousand  other  modes  quite  as  aristocratic  —  to  say 
the  least?  May  they  not  live  in  palaces,  ride  in  coaches, 
glitter  in  gold  and  diamonds,  and  fare  sumptuously  every 
day?  Will  you  envy  them  or  deny  them  every  distinc- 
tion and  every  indulgence  which  the  poor  cannot  com- 
mand? Now,  it  appears  to  me  that,  of  all  the  ways  of 
expending  wealth,  the  least  harmful  and  obtrusive  is 
precisely  this  of  building  colleges.  Suppose  the  rich 
men  of  Tennessee  should  unite  in  contributing  the 
trifling   sum  of  a  million  of  dollars   forthwith  to  con- 


342  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

struct  and  equip  a  decent  little  university,  Avhere  their 
own  sons  might  be  taught  to  be  modest  and  useful  citi- 
zens: would  the  poor  be  injured  by  such  an  appropria- 
tion? Would  a  dollar  be  extracted  from  their  empty 
purse?  No,  not  the  fraction  of  a  dollar.  Pray  then, 
let  the  rich  throw  away  their  money  upon  colleges,  if 
they  happen  to  be  so  minded.  Possibly,  they  might  do 
worse  with  their  money — worse  for  themselves,  their 
children,  their  country  —  and  worse  for  you.  Besides, 
you  would  get  all  the  working  jobs  which  such  an  en- 
terprise must  necessarily  create.  And,  if  I  do  not  mis- 
take your  craft  altogether,  you  would  not  fail  to  make  a 
profitable  acquaintance  with  the  Mammon  of  unright- 
eousness and  filthy  lucre  during  the  operation. 

3dly.  It  is  a  fact,  not  to  be  contradicted,  that  nearly 
all  the  best  educated  and  most  learned  men  in  our 
countr}^  and  in  the  world,  are  either  comparatively  poor 
or  have  been  poor.  If  they  ever  attain  to  wealth  and 
power  and  rank  and  office,  they  owe  it  all  to  their 
talents  and  learning  and  diligence.  And  thus  have 
they  been  enabled  to  rise  above  their  primitive  lowly 
condition  and  to  assume  their  proper  station,  in  spite  of 
the  artificial,  arbitrary,  conventional  barriers  which 
wealth  and  fashion  and  pride  usually  oppose  —  and, 
happily,  sometimes  oppose  in  vain,  to  superior  genius 
and  superior  science.  Still,  very  few  studious  literary 
men  are  found  among  the  wealthy  classes  even  in  our 
own  country — where  every  man  is  the  architect  of  his 
own  fortune — and  where  every  man,  fool  or  knave, 
may  get  rich,  if  he  will.     They  are  either  content  with 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  343 

a  moderate  competency,  or  their  organ  of  acquisitiveness 
is  not  sufficiently  developed,  or  the  people  have  not 
sagacity  enough  to  employ  them,  or  justice  enough  to 
remunerate  them  for  their  invaluable  services. 

And  therefore  it  is  that  the  rich  themselves  fre- 
quently ridicule  and  denounce  the  university  and  the 
scholar  and  all  liberal  learning; — precisely  because  these 
are  associated  in  their  minds  with  poverty  and  unthrifti- 
ness  and  indifference  to  the  main  chance.  They  cannot 
estimate  even  moral  and  intellectual  excellence  except 
by  the  dollar  standard.  It  is  really  .diverting  to  see, 
with  what  superlative  hauteur  and  contempt,  they  can 
look  down  upon  the  poor  student,  the  poor  author,  the 
poor  teacher,  the  poor  anything,  however  ennobled  and 
exalted  and  refined  by  mental  cultivation,  and  by  the 
possession  of  Heaven's  rarest  gifts  and  attributes.  Your 
unlettered,  pompous,  mushroom,  purse-proud  nabobs  are, 
in  general,  not  only  the  most  inveterate  foes  of  col- 
leges, but  the  most  absurd,  egotistical,  overweening, 
self-sufficient,  iron-bound,  leaden-headed,  braying  animals 
in  the  whole  world.  They  live  only  to  hoard  money : 
and  they  expend  it  only  for  display.  It  requires  a  most 
thorough  education  to  know  how  to  use  a  fortune  gen- 
teelly— not  to  say  liberally  and  munificently.  And  of 
all  the  caricatures  of  our  common  humanity,  save  from 
the  pencil  of  a  Hogarth,  the  vulgar  rich  man  who  apes 
the  manners  and  polish  and  etiquette  and  fashionable 
hi€7iseances — the  airs,  graces  and  persiflage — of  the  high- 
bred gentleman!  Why,  such  a  lumpish  millionaire 
parvenu  cannot  eat  a  good  dinner — as  a  good  dinner 


344  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

was  ordained  to  be  eaten  by  all  Christian  men.  He  eats 
as  if  he  were  running  a  race  for  a  wager,  or  as  if  a  cus- 
tomer were  still  waiting  at  his  counter  to  give  him  a 
bargain.  It  is  tantalizing,  beyond  the  endurance  of  all 
Greek  and  of  all  Roman  philosophy,  to  be  seated  at  a 
dinner  table,  furnished  and  appointed  in  all  respects, 
comme  il  faut,  merely  to  see  the  whole  array  of  good 
things  evanish  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  and  the  mo- 
mentous affair  concluded,  determined  and  summarily 
despatched,  before  the  genuine  classical  epicure  could  be 
well  prepared  for  a  quiet  and  dignified  discussion  of  the 
first  course. 

Here  then,  we  have  a  sort  of  two-edged  objection 
against  colleges.  The  poor  would  fain  cashier  them, 
because  they  are  the  pets  of  the  rich.  And  the  rich  are 
indiiferent,  because  they  do  not  help  their  sons  to  coin 
money.  Both  are  equally  wrong :  and  both  equally  mis- 
take their  own  true  interests.  Both  may  be — both  have 
been — greatly  elevated,  and  rendered  better,  wiser,  hap- 
pier and  more  useful  by  this  very  instrumentality — 
which  the  ruder  and  more  illiberal  portions  of  each 
seem  so  eager  to  destroy. 

4thly.  But,  in  the  fourth  place,  the  university  has 
ever  been  pre-eminently  the  poor  man's  friend.  Most  of 
the  older  modern  European  universities  were  originally 
charitable  foundations  —  designed  especially  for  the  gra- 
tuitous instruction  of  poor  youth:  and  they  have  re- 
tained much  of  this  character  and  continued  to  perform 
much  of  this  work  to  the  present  day.  It  has  created 
the  entire  republic  of  letters,  almost  exclusively  out  of 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  345 

the  plebeian  and  indigent  and  humbler  classes  of  society. 
It  has  constrained  monarchs  and  nobles,  wealth  and 
power,  to  do  homage  to  enlightened  and  cultivated  intel- 
lect. Wherever  it  has  flourished,  untrammeled  and  un- 
rebuked  by  royal  or  popular  arrogance,  it  has  mitigated 
or  removed  the  evils  of  superstition  and  despotism, 
of  immemorial  usage  and  prescription.  It  has  ever 
been  the  zealous  advocate  of  genuine  liberty  and  right- 
eous government;  notwithstanding  the  reproaches  and 
calumnies  of  the  demagogue  and  the  cynic.  But  I  will 
not  dwell  upon  these  topics,  nor  further  enlarge  upon 
the  ohjectiom  which  constitute  the  first  division  of  my 
subject. 

These  objections  and  a  thousand  others  may  be  well 
founded.  In  some  instances,  they  may  be  literally  true. 
The  university,  no  doubt,  has  been  perverted  and 
abused.  And  so  have  Uberty  and  religion  and  science 
and  reason,  and  every  human  blessing  and  faculty.  The 
university  has  never  been  perfect;  neither  has  any  work 
or  attribute  or  institution  of  mortal  man  ever  been 
perfect.  The  university  has  been  made  the  engine  of 
error  and  tyranny  and  priest-craft  and  all  manner  of 
high-handed  iniquity,  in  some  age  or  country :  so  have 
the  church  and  the  civil  government,  divine  revelation 
and  human  philosophy.  Indeed,  every  name,  capable  of 
abuse,  and  of  being  rendered  subservient  to  the  purposes 
of  avarice  or  ambition  or  selfish  aggrandizement  in 
any  form,  has  been  thus  employed  and  dishonoured. 
If  colleges  are  imperfect  and  sometimes  pernicious,  so 
are  common  schools  and  the  domestic  nursery.     And 


346  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

yet,  I  suppose,  we  shall  not  attempt  to  abolish  either 
families  or  common  schools.  Thoagh,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, the  spirit  of  ahoUtionism  is  abroad  in  our  land: 
and  while  Eastern  perfectionists  are  preaching  up  the 
doctrine  of  the  immediate  and  universal  abolition  of 
slavery  at  the  South  and  the  West,  and  while  certain 
benevolent  politicians  proclaim  the  necessity  of  abolish- 
ing the  whole  banking  and  commercial  machinery  of 
the  country,  there  are  also  sundry  fair  knights  errant 
boldly  enlisted  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  woman,  who 
seem  resolved  to  abolish  all  family  monopolies,  and  to 
create  a  new  social  arrangement  altogether  independ- 
ent of  man's  lordly  and  usurped  supremacy.  Indeed, 
abolitionism,  and  radicalism,  and  agrarianism,  and  ultra- 
ism,  and  amalgamationism,  and  Loco-Focoism,  and 
Lynchism,  and  Fanny- Wrightism,  are  all  the  rage:  and 
whether  any  existing  law  or  usage  or  institution  shall 
survi^-e  the  ferment  and  the  struggle,  is  beyond  our 
prophetic  ken  to  decide  or  to  conjecture.  But  as  our 
motto  is  "never  to  despair  of  the  Republic,"  we  shall 
proceed  with  our  thesis,  upon  the  presumption  that 
the  University,  at  least,  is  to  endure  and  to  triumph. 
And  thus  we  arrive  at  the  second  grand  di\dsion  of  our 
augument  or  rather  of  our  homily  upon  colleges. 

II.  We  promised  to  suggest  some  reasons  in  favour  of 
colleges,  and  of  our  own  University  in  particular.  Here 
I  may  remind  you  that,  in  rebutting  certain  attacks  and 
objections,  I  have  already  incidentally  glanced  at  many 
of  the  positive  benefits  which  result  from  colleges.  I 
may  further  remark,  that  whatever  consideration  can  be 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  347 

urged  in  favour  of  education  or  of  learning  generally 
or  of  any  degree  of  it,  is  available  and  pertinent  to  the 
cause  in  question.  If  a  little  learning  be  good  and 
desirable,  a  great  deal  is  better  and  more  desirable.  If  a 
limited  and  imperfect  education  be  worth  something, 
a  superior  and  really  excellent  education  must  be  worth 
still  more.  And  any  argument  which  sustains  the 
former,  will  a  fortiori  apply  to  the  latter. 

Please,  moreover,  to  remember  my  former  concessions. 
I  am  not  contending  for  shadows  or  for  names.  Univei"- 
sities,  like  common  schools,  may  be  and  frequently  are 
very  puny  and  pitiful  affairs.  In  pleading  for  the 
University,  I  plead  for  the  University  as  it  ought  to  be 
— not  as  it  actuall}^  is,  either  here  or  elsewhere.  It  is 
the  grand  paramount  cause  of  education  and  learning, 
in  the  highest  and  noblest  acceptation  of  the  terms, 
which  I  advocate.  University  is  the  word,  used  by 
common  consent,  throughout  the  world,  to  designate  the 
species  of  institution  where  the  largest  amount  and  ex- 
tent of  liberal  and  useful  knowledge  may  be  acquired, 
under  the  most  auspicious  circumstances,  and  with  the 
surest  guaranty  to  the  public  against  imposition  and 
charlatanry. 

Now  the  University  of  Nashville,  compared  with  my 
own  heau  ideal  of  such  an  establishment,  is  but  an 
element — a  mere  atom — a  foundation  —  a  nucleus  —  a 
corner  stone — a  first  essay  towards  the  glorious  consum- 
mation and  perfection  of  my  own  cherished  hopes  and 
anticipations.  And  I  could  say  little  more  of  any  other 
university  in  our  country.     I  regard  them  all  as  being 


348  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

still  in  their  infancy ;  or,  at  most,  in  their  early  youth : 
and  that  their  rlglit  to  the  title  of  unwerslty  is  yet  to  be 
proved  and  confirmed  by  their  future  growth  to  vigorous 
manhood  and  generous  maturity. 

The  course  of  study  provided  for  undergraduates,  is 
much  the  same  in  nearly  all  our  colleges;  and  but  few 
of  them  have  ventured  further.  To  this  extent,  we 
claim  to  be  on  an  equal  footing  with  our  neighbours  and 
sisters.  Our  undergraduate  course  is  professedly  as  ex- 
tensive and  diversified  as  usually  obtains  anywhere  in 
our  country :  and  as  high  an  order  of  intellectual  attain- 
ments is  expected  and  required  of  our  candidates  for 
degrees. 

Several  of  our  universities  have  the  Faculties  of  Law, 
or  Medicine,  or  Theology,  or  all  three,  in  addition  to  the 
ordinary  Faculty  of  Arts  and  Letters,  or  Philosophy. 
These,  of  course,  approximace  nearer  to  the  proper  char 
racter  of  a  university  than  do  the  others.  The  English 
universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge  are  similary  con- 
stituted, and  have  served  as  the  models  of  our  own.  In 
theory,  at  least — and  in  reference  to  the  government, 
discipline,  systems  and  modes  of  study  and  instruction, 
terms  and  periods  of  college  residence,  board  in  com- 
mons, monastic  seclusion,  forms,  habits,  statutes,  qualifi- 
cations for  graduation,  and  other  details  —  the  under- 
graduates of  the  English  and  American  universities 
would  seem  to  occupy  the  same  relative  position.  And 
so  far  as  the  undergraduates  are  directly  and  exclusively 
concerned,  the  number  of  professors,  whether  larger  or 
smaller,  may  not  be  very  material  —  provided  always, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSFS.  349 

there  be  enoiigli  to  teach  all  the  pu23ils  whatever  they 
arc  capable  of  learning  within  the  allotted  seasons  of 
study.  Neither  are  very  large  libraries  important  to 
this  class  of  students.  They  cannot  read  or  consult 
many  volumes  besides  their  text-books,  during  this  brief 
period.  And  were  the  university  designed  for  no  other 
or  higher  end,  it  might  be  content  with  some  dozen 
or  twenty  professors  or  tutors  for  each  hundred  or  two 
hundred  students;  together  with  a  few  score  thousand 
volumes  in  its  library;  suitable  apparatus  for  scientific 
experiments  and  illustrations;  museums  of  Natural  His- 
tory; mineralogical  cabinets;  and  whatever  specimens, 
preparations,  instruments  and  fixtures  might  be  avail- 
able either  to  professor  or  student. 

But  all  this  and  vastly  more  would  not  reach  our 
idea  of  a  complete  or  adequately  furnished  university. 
Neither  an  English  nor  an  American  ^^outh  has  finished 
his  studies,  when  he  becomes  entitled  to  the  degree 
of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  He  is  then  but  barely  qualified  to 
enter  upon  that  wider  and  more  interesting  field  of  in- 
vestigation to  which  the  great  University  invites  or 
ought  to  invite  him.  He  is  yet  to  prepare  himself  for 
public  and  professional  life.  English  and  American 
graduates  are  seldom,  on  leaving  college,  further  ad- 
vanced in  years  and  learning,  than  are  the  young  men 
on  the  continent  of  Europe  when  they  commence  their 
studies  at  the  university.  Hence  the  university  system 
of  the  latter  differs  essentially  from  the  former.  The 
two  ancient  English  Universities  can  boast  the  most 
splendid   college   edifices   in    the   world;    and   libraries 


350  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

among  the  largest  and  most  valuable  in  existence.  And 
their  resident  graduates  may  prosecute  any  course  of 
solitary  and  unaided  study  and  reading  which  they  deem 
profitable  or  agreeable.  Endowed  fellowships  also  sup- 
port a  certain  number  of  the  most  accomplished  and 
promising  poor  scholars:  who  frequently  remain  for 
years  in  the  assiduous  pursuit  of  knowledge,  and  in  the 
tranquil  enjoyment  of  the  extraordinary  advantages 
afforded  by  a  highly  cultivated  literary  society  and  daily 
access  to  the  accumulated  wisdom  and  erudition  of  the 
illustrious  dead.  These  are  privileges  which  can  never 
be  lightly  estimated.  But  they  fall  far  short  of  the 
German  and  other  continental  universities.  The  Eng- 
lish have  comparatively  few  living  teachers — scarcely 
none  for  the  liberal  professions — while  the  German 
are  abundantly  supplied.  The  English  aim  at  great 
excellence  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics  and  pure 
mathematics  5  and  to  these  they  chiefly  restrict  their 
public  examinations  for  University  honours  and  degrees. 
And  while  the  German  aim  at  and  attain  still  higher  ex- 
cellence in  the  classics  and  mathematics,  they  are  ambi- 
tious also  to  teach,  or  to  possess  the  means  of  teaching, 
every  art,  science,  language  and  literature,  ancient  and 
modern,  speculative,  practical,  experimental  and  pro- 
fessional. 

The  German  universities  consist  of  four  distinct  facul- 
ties: Theology,  Medicine,  Law  and  Philosophy.  Not 
such  meagre  faculties  as  bear  these  names  in  England 
and  America.  Instead  of  one,  two,  three,  or  half  a 
dozen    individuals   for   Law   or   Medicine    as   with    us, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  351 

they  frequently  exhibit  an  array  of  a  dozen  or  twenty  or 
forty  names,  of  the  most  learned,  gifted  and  laborious 
men  upon  earth.  Their  office  is  no  sinecure.  They 
are  working  men.  Thus,  in  Berlui,  the  Law  Faculty 
consists  of  fourteen  members,  and  the  Medical  of  thirtj^- 
two.  This  University  w^as  founded  in  1810.  And  it 
already  ranks  among  the  first  in  the  world;  and  in  some 
branches  of  science  the  very  first.  In  1830,  it  had  up- 
wards of  100  professors  and  about  1800  students : 
among  the  latter  were  400  or  500  foreigners.  The  Ger- 
man universities  are  in  fact  professional  schools,  and  are 
resorted  to  only  hy  young  men,  who  are  preparing  for 
the  active  duties  of  life,  and  never  by  boys,  as  is  the 
case  in  our  colleges.  Their  Gymnasia,  in  which  prepara- 
tion is  made  for  the  universities,  correspond  in  many 
respects  with  our  colleges.  In  the  faculties  of  Law, 
Medicine  and  Theology,  is  taught,  of  course,  whatever 
pertains  to  those  professions.  The  faculty  of  Philosophy 
comprises  everything  not  embraced  by  the  other  three. 
And  no  adequate  idea  of  what  this  every  tiling  really 
imports,  can  be  formed  except  by  a  perusal  of  the  xrro- 
gramme  of  lectures  usually  delivered  at  a  German  Uni- 
versity, during  a  single  term,  by  the  professors  in  this 
Faculty.  They  may  be  said,  almost  without  hyperbole, 
to  treat  in  their  course  of  prelections,  public  and  private, 
de  omni  scihili  et  quihusdam  aliis.  They  are  working 
men,  as  I  have  said :  but,  then,  they  do  not  labour  for 
naught  and  find  themselves.  They  are  amply  remune- 
rated both  in  honour  and  by  solid  Louis  or  Frederic  dors. 
They  frequently  attain  to  the  highest  political  distinc- 


352  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

tions  and  civil  offices.  They  are  created  barons  and 
counts — are  employed  as  State  counsellors  and  minis- 
ters, and  ambassadors  to  foreign  courts ;  and  their  society 
is  eagerly  sought  by  nobles  and  princes  and  monarchs. 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  however,  to  attempt  elaborate  de- 
scriptions and  statistical  details.  Whoever  has  studied 
the  history,  genius,  character,  government,  modes  of  in- 
struction, endowments,  revenues,  and  all  the  concen- 
trated waj'S  and  means  and  facilities  of  communicating 
knowledge,  which  distinguish  the  most  celebrated  Euro- 
pean universities,  will  be  able  to  comprehend  our 
meaning  when  we  speak  of  them  as  an  order  or  species 
of  institution  altogether  unknown  in  the  United  States. 
We  have  nothing  like  them  or  approaching  them.  If 
Harvard  and  Yale  resemble  old  Cambridge  and  Oxford, 
it  is  only  the  likeness  of  the  infant  to  a  giant,  or  of  the 
Indian  tumulus  to  an  Egyptian  pyramid.  If  the  new 
Universities  of  Virginia  and  of  the  City  of  New  York 
exhibit  features  similar  to  those  of  Edinburgh  and 
Glasgow  or  the  recently  established  London  University ; 
still,  they  are  but  miniatures,  and  humble  imitations — a 
mere  flotilla  of  gun-boats  arrayed  against  Britain's 
proud  navy  of  gallant  seventy-fours.  But  of  the  Ger- 
man, French,  Italian,  Swedish,  Dutch,  Danish  and 
Russian  Universities,  we  have  no  specimen  or  example 
in  all  our  vast  Republic.  Whether  we  ought  to  essay 
the  creation  of  precisely  such  institutions  among  us — or 
whether,  if  established,  they  would  be  duly  patronized 
and  sustained  by  our  busy,  restless,  speculating,  money- 
making  people — are  questions  open  for  discussion,  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  OOrf 

which  we  shall  not  argue  or  decide  on  the  present  occa- 
sion. 

For  the  ordinary  purposes  of  educating  boys,  generally 
between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  twenty-one,  we  have  no 
hesitation  in  giving  the  preference  to  such  colleges  as  we 
already  possess :  provided  always,  that  they  be  made  in 
fojct  what  they  assume  and  profess  to  be  in  name.  Such 
institutions,  scattered  over  the  land,  at  convenient  dis- 
tances from  each  other,  are  better  adapted  to  the  habits, 
wants  and  circumstances  of  our  widely  dispersed  and 
comparatively  poor  population.  They  correspond  to  the 
individual  colleges,  which  collectively  constitute  the 
great  universities  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge :  and  which, 
in  the  opinion  of  Milton,  would  have  proved  more  gene- 
rally useful  and  less  objectionable  on  the  score  of  im- 
moral influences,  had  they  been  erected  seperately  at 
some  thirty  or  forty  different  points  in  the  kingdom. 
They  resemble  also  the  Gjminasia  of  Germany  and  the 
colleges  [so  called]  of  France.  A  more  rigid,  effective 
and  salutary  discipline  and  government  can  be  main- 
tained in  seminaries  of  this  class  over  boys  of  a  tender 
age,  and  where  the  number  would  seldom  exceed  one  or 
two  hundred,  than  could  be  exercised  over  the  same  de- 
scription of  youth  in  a  large  university  where  a  thou- 
sand or  more  might  be  congregated.  For  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind,  that  the  students  in  the  German,  Scot- 
tish and  most  other  European  universities,  are  governed 
as  men  and  subjects,  not  by  the  Academical  Faculty, 
but  by  the  laws  of  the  land  and  the  city  police— and, 

VOL.  I.  23 


354  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

when    necessary,   by   the    strong    arm   of   the    military 
legion. 

But  I  would  not  stop  here.  While  I  would  duly 
encourage  and  improve  the  common  college,  as  we 
should  the  common  school,  there  ought  to  be  in  every 
State,  at  least  in  each  of  the  larger  States,  one  institu- 
tion of  the  highest  order  and  most  comprehensive  and 
commanding  character.  If  we  cannot  achieve  this  ob- 
ject in  five  or  twenty  years,  it  may  be  done  perhaps 
in  fifty  or  five  hundred  years.  If  we  cannot  hope  in 
our  day,  to  rival  Berlin,  Munich,  Gottingeu,  Leipsic, 
Copenhagen,  Vienna,  Halle,  Lej'den,  Paris,  Moscow  or 
St.  Petersburg;  we  may  commence  the  enterprise,  and 
leave  posterity  to  carry  it  onward  towards  completion. 
For  complete,  in  the  nature  of  things,  it  never  can  be. 
It  must  be  growing,  advancing,  enlarging,  accumulating, 
till  the  end  of  time.  No  university  in  Europe  is  com- 
plete— not  even  in  any  one  department.  With  libraries, 
for  instance,  of  from  100,000  to  700,000  volumes,  they 
are  still  adding  to  the  number,  and  must  do  so  while 
a  book  or  manuscript,  not  already  procured,  can  be 
found;  or  so  long  as  new  books  shall  be  written  and 
published.  Now  there  is  not,  in  the  United  States,  a 
single  libraiy  which  can  be  styled  large  or  respectable. — 
Not  one,  containing  more  than  30,000  or  40,000  volumes 
—  corresponding  in  numbers  and  rank  to  the  tenth  or 
twelfth  rate  of  European  libraries.  So  it  is  with  all 
other  collections,  whether  of  the  j)roducts  of  nature  or 
of  art.    No  limit  can  be  assigned  to  their  increase.    And 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  355 

while  America  has  scarcely  begun  this  work,  and  while 
Europe  is  ob\iouslj  a  centuiy  or  two  in  advance  of  us, 
it  may  yet  be  affirmed  that  neither  Europe  nor  America 
will  ever  have  completed  either  the  wdiole  or  any  one  of 
its  thousand  divisions. 

If  our  National  Government  had  appropriated  the  sur- 
plus revenue,  (while  such  a  thing  existed,)  say,  some 
fifty  millions  of  dollars  —  to  the  construction  and  en- 
dowment of  a  national  university  —  as  I  think  should 
have  been  done  —  a  very  substantial  and  well-propor- 
tioned foundation  at  least  might  have  been  laid  —  far 
superior  indeed  to  the  present  actual  condition  of  most 
European  universities.  Still,  this  w^ould  have  been  only 
a  foundation — a  mere  beginning  after  all — bold  and  co- 
lossal in  its  features  and  dimensions,  it  is  true;  and 
worthy  of  the  Republic  and  the  age  which  dared — oj' 
rather  dared  not — to  hazard  the  glorious  undertaking. 
Such  a  foundation,  with  an  annual  allowance  of  a  few 
millions,  might,  in  the  course  of  a  thousand  years,  be- 
come a  w^orld's  wonder — a  something  to  be  proud  of  and 
to  talk  about. 

A  National  or  State  Universitj^  ought  to  possess,  or  to 
aim  at  possessing,  the  means  of  teaching  all  the  sciences, 
and  everything,  indeed,  which  it  is  desirable  for  any  man 
to  know.  Thus,  in  its  libraries  should  be  found  one  or 
more  copies  of  every  valuable  book  extant  in  any  lan- 
guage, ancient  or  modern.  Not  that  any  mortal  could 
be  expected  to  read  even  the  title  pages  of  a  tithe  of 
them:  But  that  persons  of  every  variety  of  taste  and 
pursuit,  might  be  able  to  gratify  their  curiosity,  and  to 


356  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

acquire  the  specific  information  needful  for  any  purpose 
or  vocation. 

In  like  manner,  and  for  similar  uses,  specimens,  living 
or  preserved,  of  every  vegetable  and  animal  and  mineral, 
peculiar  to  the  earth,  the  air  and  the  waters  of  our 
planet,  (or  in  their  stead,  the  finest  engravings  and 
lithographs,)  ought  to  be  sought  for  with  diligence,  and 
procured  at  whatever  cost  of  time  or  money. — Together 
with  botanic  gardens,  astronomical  observatories,  ana- 
tomical and  physiological  preparations,  models  of  all 
sorts  of  machines  and  useful  inventions,  and  the  works 
of  the  noblest  artists  or  well  executed  copies  of  them. — 
Such  varied  and  opulent  collections  (still  imperfect,  in- 
deed,) as  already  adorn  many  of  the  cities  and  universi- 
ties of  Europe. — Where  may  be  seen  and  studied  every 
department,  and  almost  every  known  product  of  nature 
and  of  art;  arranged,  too,  in  the  most  convenient  and 
scientific  and  tasteful  order,  and  imparting  gratuitous 
pleasure  and  instruction  to  all  visitors  and  amateurs, 
whether  natives  or  foreigners.  There  are  museums  of 
antiques,  of  coins,  of  gems,  of  busts,  of  statues,  of  pic- 
tures, of  manuscripts,  of  engravings,  of  medals,  of  monu- 
ments, of  machines,  of  models,  of  casts  in  g^'psum,  of 
fossils;  of  natural  history,  in  each  and  all  its  branches 
and  provinces ;  of  Egyptian,  Etruscan,  Grecian,  Roman 
and  other  remains  of  ancient  art  and  genius,  still  speak- 
ing in  behalf  of  the  mighty  dead,  and  of  ages  and 
nations  long  since  passed  away. 

I  might  accompany  you,  for  examples  ad  rcm^  to  Flo- 
rence, and   Rome,  and  Turin,  and  Milan,  and  Naples, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  357 

jind  Berlin,  and  Dresden,  and  Munich,  and  Vienna,  and 
St.  Petersburg,  and  London,  and  a  score  of  other  places, 
not  unknown  to  scientific  fame.      But   let  us  pause  a 
moment  in  Paris,  and  glance  at  two  or  three  of  its  mar- 
vellous creations,  creditable  alike  to  the  liberality  of  the 
government  and  the  scientific  taste  of  the  nation.     Be- 
hold the    Jardbi  des   Plantes:    with   its  numerous  and 
diversified  establishments,  of  some  half  a  mile  in  length ; 
with  its  groups  of  plants  from  almost  everj  region  of 
the  globe;  with  its  green  and  hot  houses  of  more  than 
600    feet  in  length;   with   its  vast   menagerie   of  wild 
beasts   of  every  climate  and   latitude,  distributed    and 
secured  in  ample  and  comfortable  enclosures;  with  its 
aviary,   embracing   every  bird    known    in    France    and 
many  from    foreign    countries;    with    its    splendid    mu- 
seum of  natural  history,  also  more  than  600  feet  long; 
with  its  unrivalled  zoological  and   fossil   departments; 
with  its  curious   specimens  of  the   animal   remains  of 
the  antediluvian  world,  not  elsewhere  to  be  seen;  with 
its  extensive  library  and  invaluable  cabinet  of  compara- 
tive anatomy;    with  its  unequalled  agricultural  and  bo- 
tanical gardens;  with  its  noble  amphitheatre,  in  which 
public  lectures  are  delivered  on  all  the  physical  sciences 
and  their  application  to  the  arts,  and  where  Jussieu,  Buf- 
fon,  Hauy  and  Cuvier   have  recorded  their   names  for 
immortality.     "We   pass   the  Pantheon,  with   its   choice 
selections  in  natural  history,  antiquities  and  paintings: 
The    Conservatory  of  Arts   and   Manufactures,  with  its 
infinitude  of  machines  and  models:    The  Musee  (TArtil- 
Icrie,  the  repository  of  every  warlike  weapon,  instrument 


358  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

and  engine:  The  Royal  Library,  with  its  700,000  vo- 
lumes and  its  80,000  precious  manuscripts;  and  other 
public  libraries,  containing  a  grand  total  of  2,000,000 
books.  And  we  arrive  at  the  Louvre,  with  its  proud 
halls  of  sculpture;  and  its  magnificent  gallery  of  paint- 
ings, 1400  feet  in  length;  overwhelming  alike  all  the 
powers  of  human  reason  and  imagination.  But  here  we 
m  list  stop.  And  yet,  we  are  but  at  the  threshold  of  this 
mighty  world  of  miracle  and  enchantment! 

We  have  spoken  of  collections  and  fixtures.  Our 
University  must  have  the  requisite  teaching  force  also. 
Professors  of  every  language,  dead  and  living;  of  every 
science,  in  all  its  branches  and  subdivisions,  in  all  its 
bearings  and  applications.  To  be  more  particular: 
There  should  be  professors  or  teachers, 

Of  Ancient  classical  languages  and  literature : 
Of  Oriental  languages  and  hterature : 
Of  Modern  European  languages  and  literature : 
Of  Mathematics,  Natural  Philosophy,  Astronomy: 
Of  Chemistry,  Geology,  Mineralogy,  Comparative  Ana- 
tomy : 

Of  Archaeology,  in  reference  to  ancient  nations,  govern- 
ments, jurisprudence,  geography,  mythology,  arts,  sci 
ence,  and  still  existing  monuments : 

Of  Philology,  Eloquence,  Poetry,  History: 

Of  Physiology,  vegetable,  animal  and  comparative : 

Of  Ethics,  Politics,  Logic,  Metaphysics: 

Of  Constitutional  and  International  Law : 

Of  Political  Economy,  National  Statistics: 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  359 

Of  Architecture,  Sculpture,  Painting,  Drawing,  En- 
graving, Music: 

Of  Engineering,  civil,  military,  and  naval 

Of  Mechanics,  principles  and  practice : 

Of  Agriculture,  Commerce,  Manufactures: 

Of  Fencing,*  riding,  swimming,  and  other  manly  and 
healthful  gymnastics : 

Of  Natural  History,  in  every  department : 

Of  all  the  Liberal  Professions : 

Of  Biblical  Literature:  And  of  Eeligion,  in  such 
forms  and  modes  as  may  be  satisfactory  to  the  judicious 
and  reflecting  portion  of  the  community. 

[The  above  is  not  given  either  as  a  complete  enumera- 
tion or  proper  grouping  of  the  subjects  for  professor- 
ships, but  rather  as  a  brief  summary  or  outline  of  the 
more  obvious  and  important.] 

There  should  be  schools,  in  short,  for  all  the  sciences, 
arts,  languages  and  professions.  So  that  no  youth  need 
ever  cross  the  ocean  to  study  and  learn  what  ought 
to  be  taught  much  more  safely  and  advantageously  at 
home. 

Now,  whatever  other  nations  have  achieved  in  behalf 
of  science,  learning  and  education,  we  could  accomplish, 
sooner  or  later,  by  the  aid  of  our  national  treasury.  As 
nothing,  however,  may  be  expected  from  the  General 
Government,  and  very  little  from  the  State  Govern- 
ments, until  the  spirits  of  Washington,  Franklin,  Jeffer- 
son and  Clinton  shall  preside  in  our  councils,  it  follows, 
either  that  our  contemplated  University  must  remain 
a  ccvstle  in  the  air,  or  it  must  be  built  up  by  the  people — 


360  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

by  rich  people  too — or,  at  least,  by  those  who  possess 
some  property.  It  must  be  effected  by  private  munifi- 
cence, effort  and  enterprise. 

If  the  Legislature  of  Tennessee  will  not  create  and 
endow  a  university  suited  to  this  Commonwealth,  the 
people  must  do  the  work,  or  it  will  n4ver  be  done. 
Were  I  a  member  of  that  body,  and  free  from  all  col- 
legiate and  clerical  connexions,  I  might  possibly  attempt 
an  argument  or  a  speech  upon  this  unpopular  theme. 
And  I  might  say  some  plain  things  about  justice  and 
honour  and  integrity — of  imdemnification  for  wrongs 
inflicted  and  rights  withheld — of  legislative,  as  well  as 
individual,  obligations  to  fulfil  contracts,  to  redeem 
pledges,  to  pay  debts,  and  to  discharge,  with  a  scrupulous 
and  rigid  fidelity,  all  the  duties  of  a  responsible  and 
voluntarily  assumed  trust  and  guardianship.  But  as  I 
am  not  entitled  to  the  floor,  I  will  not  address  the  House 
at  present.  If  the  Legislature,  however,  will  elect  me 
their  representative  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
I  will  exert  ni}'  humble  faculties  to  the  \qyj  uttermost 
to  induce  the  Government  to  make  a  new  grant  of  a  few 
hundred  thousand  acres  of  wild  land  to  our  hitherto  ne- 
glected and  povertj'-stricken  colleges  and  academies; 
and  to  absolve  the  State  from  all  her  past  iniquities  and 
existmg  liabilities  on  this  score.  I  hope  the  Honour- 
able Gextlemex  Avill  maturely  deliberate  upon  this 
singularly  disinterested  and  modest  proposition  of  mine, 
before  they  proceed  to  a  final  choice.  They  will  find 
me,  moreover,  a  most  orthodox,  independent,  decided, 
old-fashioned,  constitutional  politician;    who  will  listen 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  361 

respectfully  to  all  their  instructions,  and  then  act  just  as 
he  pleases.  —  Always  ''taking  the  responsibility,"  and 
hazarding  the  consequences. 

Let  us  now  consider  what  we  can  do,  and  ought  forth- 
with to  undertake.  Though  we  might  despair  of  ever 
attaining  to  the  regal  grandeur  of  Berlin  or  Paris  or 
Oxford,  we  may  assuredly  venture  to  follow  the  example 
of  the  little  republican  Swiss  Cantons  of  Zurich,  Berne, 
Basle  and  Geneva.  Of  Geneva  especially:  the  popular 
tion  of  w^hich,  including  both  city  and  country,  scarcely 
amounts  to  50,000 — not  much  exceeding  that  of  David- 
son county.  The  University,  or  Academy,  as  it  is  com- 
monly styled,  of  Geneva,  has  flourished  during  a  period 
of  more  than  450  years.*  "The  Genevese  are  as  much 
distinguished  by  their  devotion  to  science  as  Ijy  their 
public  spirit.  And  it  excites  admiration  to  see  how 
much  they  have  done,  and  are  still  doing,  with  their 
limited  means,  for  the  interests  of  learning  and  the  ad- 
vancement of  society.  This  patriotic  spirit  extends 
even  to  the  labouring  classes,  who,  to  give  an  instance, 
in  1815,  when  Decandolle  wished  for  a  Botanic  garden, 

*  It  has  a  public  library  of  about  10,000  volumes;  an  observatory; 
a  museum  of  natural  history,  comprising  Saussure's  collections  of 
minerals,  petrifactions,  volcanic  productions,  insects  and  birds,  together 
with  his  choice  assortment  of  philosophical  instruments  and  chemical 
apparatus ;  Dr.  Jurine's  cabinets  of  ornithology  and  entomology,  and 
the  fossils  of  St.  Gothard;  the  mineral  collections  also  of  Pictet, 
Tollot,  Tengry,  De  Boissy,  and  De  Luc ;  Haller's  herbarium ;  Pictet's 
philosophical  apparatus ;  cabinets  of  optical  and  mathematical  instru- 
ments; anatomical  preparations  and  antiquities;  models  in  gypsum 
of  ancient  statues,  groups,  busts,  and  bass-reliefs;  and  some  fine 
paintings 


362  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

offered  voluntarily  to  build,  without  remuneration, -a  hot 
house  with  all  suitable  appurtenances,  and  to  furnish  the 
necessary  glass  at  their  own  expense." 

"The  system  of  education  which  prevails  at  Geneva, 
is  perhaps  not  surpassed  by  that  of  any  other  city  in 
Europe.  It  relates  to  the  studies  of  childhood,  to  those 
of  adolescence,  and  to  those  of  the  learned  professions 
of  divinity,  law  and  phj'sic.  The  first  or  lowest  of  these 
departments  resembles  Eton  and  Westminster  schools  in 
England.  It  is  conducted  by  eleven  masters,  called 
regens,  under  the  superintendence  of  a  rector,  a  principal, 
and  the  academy  of  professors.  Children  from  the  age 
of  five  to  fifteen  or  sixteen  are  successively  taught  read- 
ing, Avriting,  orthography,  arithmetic,  geography,  Greek, 
Latin  and  Mathematics.  The  college  (as  this  depart- 
ment is  designated)  is  divided  into  nine  classes,  each 
having  a  separate  and  commodious  class  room.  The 
scholars  generally  continue  a  year  in  each  class,  and  no 
one  is  permitted  to  leave  his  form,  till  he  is  fit  for  being 
promoted  to  a  higher  one.  An  account  of  the  degrees 
of  good  and  bad  conduct  of  every  boy  is  regularly  and 
faithfully  kept,  which  is  summed  up  at  the  end  of  the 
week.  Twice  every  year  prizes  are  distributed  for  good 
conduct,  and  for  progress  in  study;  and  once  in  the  year, 
generally  in  June,  exercises  are  proposed  to  each  class, 
and  prizes  are  adjudged  to  the  best.  These  prizes  are 
distributed  on  the  day  called  the  day  of  promotion — the 
day  before  that  on  which  the  properly  qualified  students 
are  promoted  to  a  higher  class.  A  grand  solemnity  is  on 
this   occasion  celebrated  in  the  cathedral  church,  and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  363 

is  attended  1)y  nil  the  public  bodies  in  their  robes,  and  hy 
crowds  of  citizens  of  every  class.  On  the  celebration  of 
this  fefe,  in  June  1814,  eighty-eight  silver  medals  were 
distributed."  Such  is  the  Preparatory  School  of  the 
Universit}'  of  Geneva. 

"  The  second  department  (college  proper  of  our  coun- 
try) of  the  system  of  education  at  Geneva,  is  intrusted 
to  the  professors,  who  occupy  the  highest  station  in  the 
Academy.    It  is  subdivided  into  classes,  called  andltoires. 
Four  years'  attendance  is  necessary  to  complete  the  stu- 
dies of  this  department.     The  first  two  are  devoted  to 
the  Belles  Lettrcs,  and  the  last   two  to  the  different 
branches  of  philosophy.     When  the  student  has  com- 
pleted this  course,  which  he  generally  does  at  the  age  of 
18  or  20,  he  may  proceed  to  the  study  of  divinity,  law  or 
physic."     Lectures  are  deUvered  upon  the  most  import- 
ant subjects,  scientific,  literary  and  professional,  by  some 
twenty  or  thirty  learned  professors.     This  excellent  esta- 
blishment, in  which  are  usually  educated   more   than 
1000  pupils  of  all  ages,  is  supported  exclusively  by  a 
population  of  about  30,000.     The  professors  are  held  in 
the  highest  estimation :  and,  when  the  pecuniary  circum- 
stances of  the  party  will  permit,  the  honour  of  teaching 
is  considered  a  sufficient  compensation  for  its  labour. 
Even  the  inferior  teachers,  or  regens  of  the  lowest  de- 
partment, are  sometimes  chosen  members  of  the  Repre- 
sentative Assembly.      "There  is  certainly  no  place  in 
the  world  to  which  a  father  may  send  his  children  with 
fewer  anxieties  than  to  Geneva."     So  eminently  distin- 
guished is  this  beautiful  and  favoured  city  for  the  intelli- 


364  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

gence,  simplicity,  refinement,  moral  purity,  courtesy,  and 
literary  spirit  of  its  inhabitants.  I  would  recommend 
Geneva  as  a  model  and  exemplar  for  Nashville.  What 
Geneva  is,  and  long  has  been,  Nashville  may  become; 
if  she  will  direct  her  attention  to  moral  and  intel- 
lectual improvement,  rather  than  to  the  frivolities,  ab- 
surdities and  extravagance  of  fashionable  luxury  and 
parade. 

Again,  there  is  no  college  or  university  in  our  own 
country,  which  is  above  our  ability  to  equal  or  even 
to  surpass.  Expensive  edifices  may  be  dispensed  with. 
Neither  the  Scottish  nor  the  German  universities  are 
noticeable  on  this  account.  With  a  few  exceptions, 
their  college  buildings  are  cheap  and  plain  —  designed 
chiefly  for  lecture  rooms,  libraries  and  other  collections. 
While  the  students  generally  board  at  private  lodgings. 
A  few  additional  professors  would  render  our  under- 
graduate department,  or  college  pro^je;-,  equal  to  the 
very  best,  and  superior  to  most,  of  our  already  popu- 
lar and  flourishing  institutions.  Let  us  examine  two  or 
three  of  our  ancient  and  most  celebrated  colleges  in  re- 
ference to  this  point.  The  Faculty  of  Arts,  in  nearly 
all  of  them,  it  may  be  remarked,  consists  of  from  two 
to  six  professors.  At  venerable  Harvard,  the  oldest 
of  them  all,  we  find  an  array  of  twenty-two  professors, 
lecturers  and  instructors, — besides  the  president,  who  is 
not  a  teacher,  and  the  tutors,  whose  office  is  temporary 
and  their  number  variable.  Of  these,  two  are  Lmo 
professors,  six  are  Medical,  and  reside  in  Boston,  and 
three  are   TJieoIogical :    so  that  only  eleven  permanent 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  365 

instructors  remain  for  the  undergraduates.  And  four  of 
these  belong  to  the  department  of  Modern  languages  and 
literature :  leaving  after  all  only  seven  to  do  the  work 
which  five  jjerform  at  our  college.  Compared  then  with 
Harvard,  and  excluding  the  three  learned  professions, 
our  present  deficiency  exists  chiefly  in  the  department 
of  Modern  languages.  At  Yale  college  there  are  five  or 
six  professors,  besides  those  of  the  Law,  Medical  and 
Theological  schools  or  faculties.  Both  Harvard  and 
Yale  usually  employ  each  six  or  eight  tutors,  according 
to  the  actual  number  of  students — averaging  commonly 
between  two  and  three  hundred.  These  perform  all 
the  drudgery  of  elementary  drilling,  and  attend  the 
daily  routine  of  recitations  in  the  class  room.  While 
the  professors  read  lectures,  and  maintain  the  dignity  of 
science  and  of  the  iSenatus  Academicus.  Harvard  pos- 
sesses a  library  of  40,000  volumes — Yale  about  8,000. 
Our  three  college  libraries  contain  upwards  of  5,000 
volumes.  In  scientific  collections  and  apparatus,  we 
are  not  far  behind  either  of  them. 

Next  to  Geneva,  New  Haven  might  serve  as  a  pattern 
for  Nashville.  It  is  celebrated,  not  only  for  its  univer- 
sity, but  for  its  superior  boarding  schools  and  smaller 
seminaries  for  the  young  of  both  sexes.  The  average 
number  of  persons  who  are  here  from  abroad  for  the 
purpose  of  education  is  supposed  to  be  rarel}^  below  a 
thousand. 

In  the  University  of  Virginia  there  are  nine  "  Schools," 
as  they  are  styled;  or,  in  simple  English  phrase,  nine 
Professors:  each  the  sole  teacher  of  one  school.     These 


366  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

schools  or  professorships  are  denominated  as  follows: 
1.  Ancient  Languages.  2.  Modern  Languages,  3.  Ma- 
thematics. 4.  Natural  Philosophy.  5.  Chemistry  and 
Materia  Medica.  6.  Anatomy  and  Surgery.  7.  Medi- 
cine. 8.  Moral  Philosophy.  9.  Law.  Two  and  a  half  or 
three  of  these  professors  teach  the  Medical  students,  and 
are  in  fact  the  Medical  Faculty.  One  occupies  the  chair 
of  Law.  Leaving  five  or  five  and  a  half,  including  the 
professor  of  modern  languages,  to  perform  the  duties  as- 
signed to  the  Faculty  of  Arts  in  our  colleges.  Here  it 
is  obvious  to  remark,  that  several  of  these  ''schools" 
must  be  radically  defective.  One  man,  for  instance, 
can  scarcely  ever  be  found  competent  to  teach  more 
than  one  living  tongue;  that  is,  if  correct  pronuncia- 
tion and  purity  of  idiom  and  accent  be  required.  Yet, 
in  the  school  of  modern  languages  at  this  University, 
are  taught  by  its  single  unassisted  professor,  "the 
French,  Spanish,  Italian,  German  and  Anglo-Saxon: 
and  if  desired,  will  be  taught  also  by  the  same  indi- 
vidual, the  Danish,  Swedish,  Hollandish,  and  Portu- 
guese languages.  Lectures  on  the  literature  of  each 
of  the  nations  whose  languages  are  taught,  are  delivered 
twice  a  week,  by  the  professor;  and  also  lectures  on  mo- 
dern history,  and  the  political  relations  of  the  differ- 
ent civilized  nations  of  the  present  day."  If  all  this  be 
icell  done  by  the  existing  professor,  I  venture  to  affirm 
that  the  like  has  never  been  performed  heretofore  or 
elsewhere,  and  to  predict  that  the  like  will  never  be 
successfully  accomplished  again.  This  custom  of  ap- 
pointing a  professor  of  half  a  dozen  or  more  modern 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  367 

languages,  which  obtains  so  generally  in  our  colleges, 
must  be  discontinued. 

In  the  School  of  Ancient  Languages,  "  are  taught  the 
Latin  and  Greek  Languages,  the  Greek  and  Roman 
History,  Geography  and  Literature,  and  the  Hebrew 
Language."  The  instruction  given  by  prelections  and 
examinations,  comprises  a  list  of  subjects,  which  occu- 
pies more  than  a  large  closely  printed  octavo  page,  in 
the  bare  enumeration  —  as  published  in  the  Catalogue 
of  the  University  for  the  past  year.  From  the  same 
authority  it  appears  that  the  number  of  students  at- 
tending this  school  or  professor,  during  the  last  session, 
(ending  July  4th,)  was  78.  Comment  upon  such  a  pro- 
gramma  of  iwomises  would  be  superfluous  before  any 
adequate  judges  of  classical  and  philological  tuition. 
Li  most  European  schools,  half  a  score  of  teachers, 
at  the  least,  would  be  required  for  the  same  amount 
of  labour;  and  nowhere  else,  in  our  own  country,  has 
any  similar  feat  been  attempted.  But  I  will  not  pursue 
a  criticism  and  comparison  which  might  be  deemed  in- 
vidious and  uncandid.  My  object  is  not  to  disparage 
other  colleges,  but  to  show  how  easy  it  is  to  reach 
their  standard,  and  to  transcend  it  if  we  please. 

The  following  professorships  are  already  established  in 
the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York.  1.  Civil  En- 
gineering and  Architecture:  2.  The  Literature  of  the 
Arts  of  design:  3.  Intellectual  and  Moral  Philosophy 
and  Belles  Lettres:  4.  Greek  Language  and  Literature: 
5.  Latin  Language  and  Literature:  C.  French  Language 
and  Literature:     7.   Italian  Language  and  Literature: 


368  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

8.  Spanish  Language  and  Literature :  9.  Associate  profes- 
sorship of  do.:  10.  German  Language  and  Literature: 
1 1 .  Hebrew :  12.  Mathematics :  13.  Xat ural  Philosoph y 
and  Astronomy:  14.  Chemistry  and  Botany:  1-5.  Law: 
16.  Geology  and  Mineralogy:  IT.  Arabic,  Syriac.  Per- 
sian and  Ethiopic:  18.  The  Evidences  of  Revealed 
Religion.  Here  are  five  professors  for  four  modern 
languages;  and  three  for  the  Latin.  Greek  and  Hebrew. 
Eight  altogether  for  the  usual  undergraduate  course. 
exclusive  of  modem  languages.  This  University,  ac- 
cording to  its  original  plan,  embraces  four  Faculties, 
namely:  1.  A  Faculty  of  Letters  and  the  Fine  Arts. 
2.  A  Faculty  of  Science  and  the  Arts.  3.  A  Faculty 
of  Law.  1.  A  Faculty  of  Medicine.  There  are  two 
General  Departments  in  the  University.  The  first  em- 
braces the  usual  collegiate  course  of  instruction  which 
has  obtained  in  our  country :  and  the  second  is  designed 
to  embrace  instruction  in  the  higher  branches  of  htera- 
ture  and  science,  and  in  professional  studies.  The  latter 
Department  will  probably  resemble  the  European  uni- 
versities more  closely  than  any  other  in  our  country. 
The  beginning  augurs  well  for  the  liberality  of  the 
great  commercial  metropolis  of  the  Western  hemi- 
sphere. 

Our  first  effort,  here  in  Nashville,  should  doubtless  be 
to  elevate  the  only  department  which  we  have  hitherto 
attempted  to  estabhsh;  that  is.  the  college  for  under- 
graduates, or  the  Faculty  of  Arts.  Science  and  Litera- 
ture. It  is  desirable  to  have  professors  of  German, 
French.  Italian.  Spanish  —  perhaps  of  some  other  mo- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  369 

deni  languages — thougli  a  knowledge  of  none  of  them 
has  been  made  indifspen sable  to  graduation  in  any  college. 
Still,  provision  for  their  study  is  important.  A  professor 
of  Civil  Engineering  is  loudly  called  for  b}^  the  special 
exigencies  of  our  country ;  though  even  such  a  professor 
is  hardly  yet  to  be  met  with  at  any  of  our  older  institu- 
tions. There  is  ample  scope  also  for  new  professorships, 
by  dividing  and  subdividing  those  already  established. 
And  it  will  be  easily  perceived  from  my  previous  state- 
ments, that  distinct  professorships  may  be  multiplied 
without  limit — provided  the  pecuniary  means  for  the 
purpose  can  be  obtained. 

Whether  a  Preparatory  Department  should  be  con- 
nected with  our  University,  has  been  doubted.  If  it 
should  be  resolved  on,  I  have  no  hesitation  in  giving 
a  decided  preference  to  the  system  of  Geneva,  already 
adverted  to.* 

How  soon  it  may  be  practicable  to  add  the  Faculties 


*  For  various  weighty  reasons,  I  have  hitherto  objected  to  any  such 
connexion.  Of  course,  in  comparison  with  other  Western  collep:es. 
our  catalogue  of  students  may  frequently  appear  diminutive.  In  all 
of  them,  the  preparatory  department,  or  college  grammar  school,  fur- 
nishes a  large  proportion  of  the  names  which  are  periodically  pub- 
lished in  their  catalogues  of  students.  The  four  or  five  excellent 
classical  seminaries  in  the  town  of  Xashville,  with  many  others 
throughout  the  State,  constitute  in  fact  the  preparatory  department 
of  the  University :  which  is  organized,  in  all  respects,  agreeably  to  the 
plan  which  long  experience  at  the  East  has  sanctioned  as  the  most 
eligible.  "With  this  explanation,  our  number  of  students,  attached  as 
they  all  are  to  the  four  college  classes,  will  be  found  superior  to  that 
of  the  same  order  in  most  AVestern  institutions.  This  number,  for 
several  years  past,  has  generally  averaged  from  100  to  125 — not 
merely  on  our  books,  but  actually  present. 
VOL.  I.  24 


370  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

of  Law  and  Medicine;  and  what  shall  be  their  character; 
are  questions  more  easily  asked  than  answered.  Such 
faculties  might  be  organized  immediately,  were  we  con- 
tent to  be  on  a  par  with  Harvard,  Yale,  and  Virginia. 
But  one  or  two  professors  of  Law,  and  three  or  four 
of  Medicine,  would  not  meet  our  views.  There  is, 
in  fact,  no  Medical  School  ui  America  or  Great  Bri- 
tain at  all  comparable  with  many  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  or  equal  to  the  wants  of  the  profession.  Thus, 
in  Paris,  for  example,  the  Medical  Faculty  consists  of 
twenty-three  professors,  eleven  honorary  professors,  and 
twenty-four  associates — in  all,  fifty-eight.  "  In  order  to 
obtain  a  Medical  Diploma,  the  candidate  must  previously 
have  received  the  degrees  of  Bachelor  of  Letters  and 
Bachelor  of  Science,  which  imply  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages,  History, 
Geography,  Moral  and  Intellectual  Philosophy,  Mathe- 
matics, Natural  Philosophy,  Chemistry,  Botany,  Min- 
eralogy, Zoology,  &c.  &c.  He  must  then  assiduously 
devote  himself  to  the  study  of  Medicine  for  four  entire 
years,  and  attend  all  the  regular  lectures.  He  is  then 
admitted  to  an  examination,  (held  principally  in  the 
Latin  Language,)  and  if  this  be  passed  creditably,  to  his 
degree."  Not  a  few  Americans,  after  being  graduated  at 
our  medical  schools,  resort  to  Paris  to  complete  or  rather 
to  extend  their  elementary  studies. 

As  to  Theology — probably,  the  least  said  or  done,  the 
better.  Still,  if  the  various  religious  denominations 
would  consent  to  the  measure,  each  might  attach  a 
Theological  School  or   Faculty  to  the  University,  for 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  371 

the  sole  benefit  of  its  own  adherents,  and  to  prepare 
ministers  for  its  own  churches.  The  requisite  funds 
would  be  raised,  managed  and  controlled  by  the  party 
creating  such  school,  and  be  subject  to  withdrawal  at  its 
pleasure.  In  like  manner,  the  professors  would  be  nomi- 
nated and  removed  by  the  church  or  sect  supporting 
them.  Thus,  there  might  be  a  Faculty,  composed  of 
Episcopal  clergymen,  nominated  by  the  Bishop  or  the 
Convention  of  the  Diocese;  others  of  Methodists,  Pres- 
byterians, Baptists,  &c.  subject  to  their  respective  eccle- 
siastical judicatories.  I  could  point  out  many  advantages 
as  likely  to  result  from  half  a  dozen  or  more  learned 
Theological  Faculties  of  divers  sects,  together  with  their 
pupils,  all  residing  at  the  same  grand  literary  Head  Quar- 
ters, and  freely  associating,  studying,  conversing  and  dis- 
puting with  each  other.  I  do  not  suppose  that  they 
would  ever  agree  to  think  alike;  or  that  proselytes 
would  be  gained  by  any  one  from  the  rest.  They 
might,  however,  acquire  a  more  tolerant,  indulgent, 
catholic  spirit;  and  agree  to  differ,  with  sentiments 
of  mutual  respect,  good-wdll  and  Christian  charity. 
They  might  learn  that  the  worst  heresy  is  uncharitable- 
ness ;  and  that  a  holy  life  is  the  best,  if  not  the  only,  evi- 
dence of  orthodox  principles. 

We  are  now  endeavouring  to  make  such  additions 
to  our  buildings  and  such  improvements  upon  our  col- 
lege grounds  as  will  furnish  the  necessary  accommoda- 
tions, and  render  the  whole  establishment  more  classical 
and  tasteful  in  appearance  than  it  has  hitherto  been. 
For  the  completion  of  this  enterprise,  already  in  pro- 


372  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

gress,  we  have  been  compelled  to  appeal  to  the  liberality 
of  our  citizens.  We  think  the  appeal  will  not  be  made 
in  vain.  We  ask  for  only  fifty  thousand  dollars  at  pre- 
sent. 

The  "Alumni  Society"  of  the  University  stand  pledged 
to  endow  a  professorship  of  one  or  more  modern  lan- 
guages.    They  will  doubtless  succeed. 

Our  library  may  be  increased  indefinitely  and  rapidly 
by  individual  contributions  of  such  books  as  are  not 
needed  by  their  owners  or  which  can  be  very  conve- 
niently spared. 

Let  each  citizen  also  add  to  our  collections  whatever 
specimens  of  natural  history  or  of  art  he  may  happen 
to  possess,  or  be  able  to  procure.  Thus,  we  shall  soon 
have  large  libraries,  cabinets  and  museums. 

I  will  now  briefly  advert  to  certain  local  habits  or 
conventional  usages,  which  confer  on  the  Northern  col- 
leges peculiar  importance,  and  which  elevate  them 
greatly  in  the  public  estimation. 

In  the  first  place:  Throughout  New  England,  New 
York  and  New  Jersey,  the  office  of  a  trustee  is  regarded 
as  a  most  honourable  distinction:  and  it  is  eagerly 
coveted  by  the  learned,  the  wealthy,  and  the  most 
eminent  citizens.  No  man,  in  those  States,  can  be 
so  exalted  as  to  feel  or  fancy  himself  above  or  indiffer- 
ent to  this  academical  trust :  and,  in  general,  it  is  very 
punctually  and  faithfully  discharged. 

In  the  second  place :  The  office  of  president  and  pro- 
fessor is  universally  looked  up  to  as  the  highest  and  most 
respectable  which  can  be  attained  by  the  aspiring  candi- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  373 

dates  for  honourable  rank  in  society.  No  political  or 
professional  station  takes  precedence  of  these.  Nor 
would  the  head  of  any  distinguished  or  opulent  family 
be  ambitious  of  a  more  creditable  vocation  or  post  of 
honour  for  a  favourite  and  talented  son,  than  that  of  a 
college  professorship.  Hence  it  not  unfrequently  hap- 
pens that  a  wealthy  individual  will  spare  no  pains  or 
expense  in  educating  a  son  expressly  for  this  service. 
And  should  no  vacant  chair  seasonably  offer,  he  will  per- 
haps himself  endow  a  professorship  in  some  college 
on  purpose  for  his  son's  accommodation.  Thus,  the  pre- 
sent Professor  of  Greek  in  Yale  College,  occupies  a  chair 
endowed  exclusively  by  his  father — lately  a  respectable 
merchant  in  the  city  of  New  York.  On  all  public 
solemnities  and  celebrations  also,  the  principals  of  uni- 
versities and  colleges  appear  in  the  first  or  highest  rank. 
Thus,  the  people  are  taught  to  respect  and  reverence  the 
literary  character,  and  the  literary  institution,  and  the 
literary  professor,  and  the  whole  teaching  corps  of  the 
Commonwealth.^^  We  have  little  of  this  spirit  among  us 
at  the  South  and  West.  The  vocation  of  the  teacher  is 
not  respected :  and  hence  not  many  respectable  men  will 
seek  it  as  the  business  of  life.    Indeed,  such  is  the  preju- 


*  In  Europe,  as  we  have  seen,  the  university  chair  is  often  illustrated 
by  knights,  and  baronets,  and  barons,  and  counts,  and  marquises — who 
have  as  fairly  earned  and  won  the  title  as  any  successful  military  or 
naval  officer,  as  any  fortunate  statesman  or  accomplished  jurist:  as 
witness.  Count  Berzelius,  Sir  John  Playfair,  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  Sir 
David  Brewster,  Sir  John  Leslie,  Count  Lagrange,  Baron  Cuvier.  Sir 
Daniel  H.  Sandford,  Baron  Humboldt,  Count  Berthollet,  Baron 
Dubois,  Marquis  de  La  Place,  Baron  de  Sacy,  &c. 


374  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

dice,  such  the  ignorance,  and  such  the  absurd  injustice 
and  impolicy  which  prevail  on  this  subject,  that  a  man 
of  letters  and  science  is  hardly  deemed  fit  for  public 
office  of  any  kind.  If  he  can  write  a  book  or  deliver 
learned  lectures  ex  cathedra,  it  is  taken  for  granted  that 
he  is  good  for  nothing  else.  At  the  East,  not  only  the 
most  accomplished  divines,  physicians  and  lawyers,  but 
the  most  eminent  statesmen  and  judges  also,  have  been 
elevated  to  university  professorships  and  presidencies. 
Of  the  latter  class,  may  be  named,  among  others  still 
living,  Duer,  Quincy,  Butler,  Kent,  Story,  Everett, 
Adams.  During  the  revolutionary  war,  the  president 
and  a  professor  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  were 
members  of  Congress  —  and  the  first,  a  signer  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  The  present  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  will,  no  doubt,  reach  the  uttermost  goal  of 
his  ambition,  when  he  shall  be  privileged  to  finish  his 
brilliant  career  in  the  University  where  he  first  acquired 
that  reputation  which  attracted  the  popular  notice  and 
demand  for  his  political  services.  Here,  I  may  remark 
by  the  way,  that  Massachusetts  is  perhaps  the  only  State 
w^iich  continues  to  bestow  spontaneous  honours  and 
unsought  offices  upon  superior  talent,  learning  and  integ- 
rity. And  this  is  precisely  the  best  educated  and  most 
thoroughly  democratic  Commonwealth  in  the  world. 
Here,  too,  have  been,  from  the  commencement  of  its 
colonial  existence,  and  still  are,  more  and  better  colleges, 
academies  and  common  schools  than  in  any  other  pro- 
vince or  State  of  this  continent. 

In  the  third  place :  The  great  men  of  the  East  attend 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  3/0 

the  anniversary  commencements  of  their  respective  uni- 
versities. The  trustees,  of  course,  are  present  —  the 
clergy  of  all  sects — teachers  of  every  description — the 
lawyers  and  the  physicians — the  Alumni  from  every 
quarter — the  governor  and  suite  —  the  judges  and  the 
legislature — the  mayor  and  corporation — the  wealth  and 
fashion  and  beauty  of  the  vicinity — all  the  world  are 
there.  It  is  a  high  day — the  most  joyous  and  interest- 
ing day  in  the  calendar — the  grand  literary  festival  of 
the  State.  Legislatures  and  courts,  if  in  session,  adjourn 
to  participate  in  the  intellectual  banquet  and  to  contri- 
bute to  its  pomp  and  brilliancy.  They  will  not  merely 
make  a  show,  of  attendance — march  into  the  church  and 
march  out  again — but  will  remain,  without  moving  or 
fidgeting,  to  the  end  of  the  exercises,  or  of  the  exhibi- 
tion. They  will  sit  it  out — nay,  sometimes,  stand  it  out. 
I  have  seen  gentlemen,  old  gentlemen  too,  literally  stand 
for  five  successive  hours,  and  listen  attentively  and 
respectfully  to  all  the  juvenile  performances  of  the  occa- 
sion. Neither  their  dinner  hell,  nor  a  horse-race,  nor  a 
coch-fight,  would  divert  them  from  the  proper  duties  and 
proprieties  of  the  day.  We,  too,  may  hope  for  some- 
thing good  and  great,  when  we  shall  learn  to  manifest 
a  like  sympathy  and  interest  and  zeal;  and  to  act  a 
similar  part  in  the  periodical  celebrations  of  our  literary 
institutions. 

But  I  have  too  long  lost  sight  of  the  main  scope 
of  the  second  division  of  my  discourse. 

The  consideration  which  should  induce  us  to  sustain 
a  first-rate  university  at  Nashville,  may  be  divided  into 


376  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

special  and  general.  The  first  relate  to  advantages 
accruing  chiefly  to  Nashville  from  its  location.  The 
second  to  those  which  it  will  afford  alike  to  the  whole 
communitj'. 

Under  the  first  head,  w^e  remark, 

1.  That  a  flourishing  university  will  add  greatly  to 
the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  Nashville.  This  is  an 
argument  which  all  can  comprehend  and  appreciate.  If 
no  other  or  higher  motive  should  prevail,  this  would  be 
sufficient  with  any  people,  sagacious  enough  to  discern 
and  to  pursue  their  own  interests.  Such  a  university 
would  enable  us  to  educate  our  sons  at  home;  and  thus 
prevent  the  sending  of  many  thousands  of  dollars  out 
of  our  city  and  State,  to  be  expended  abroad  and  for  the 
benefit  of  strangers.  It  would  invite  multitudes  of 
youth  from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  from  the  neigh- 
bouring States,  to  study  here  and  to  spend  their  money 
here :  and  thus  would  thousands  of  dollars  flow  into  the 
place,  which  otherwise  would  not  come  hither  at  all. 
It  is  w^ell  ascertained  that  Southern  students  at  our 
Northern  colleges,  spend,  on  an  average,  a  thousand 
dollars  each  per  annum.  A  hundred  such  youth  there- 
fore, while  resident  at  the  North,  consume  at  least  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars  annually  of  Southern  capital, 
without  yielding  the  slightest  pecuniary  return.  And, 
in  like  proportion  for  any  number,  more  or  less.  This 
is  an  enormous  tax  upon  the  natives,  and  ought  not  to 
be  tolerated.  The  education  of  one  hundred  Tennessee 
youth  in  Connecticut  for  instance,  during  only  the  col- 
lege term  of  four  years,  would  withdraw  from  Tennessee 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  377 

the  round  sum  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars.  And 
yet,  the  judicious  expenditure  of  half  this  amount 
at  our  own  doors,  and  for  the  benefit  of  our  own 
mechanics,  would  provide  a  better  institution  of  learning 
than  any  which  Connecticut  can  boast.  Other  schools, 
too,  of  every  gradation,  would  grow  up  around  us  and  in 
the  midst  of  us,  as  preparatory  and  auxiliary  to  the  Uni- 
versity. So  that,  in  a  few  years,  a  thousand  boys  (to  say 
nothing  of  the  girls)  might  be  in  training  here  from  the 
States  south  of  us :  and  how  much  money  they  would 
bring  along  with  them,  I  leave  you  to  calculate. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Numerous  families  would  select 
this  as  their  temporary  or  permanent  residence,  with  a 
view  mainly  to  the  education  of  their  children.  Thus 
enhancing  the  value  of  all  your  property,  and  of  all 
your  trades  and  avocations.  Every  house  and  lot  in  your 
town,  and  every  pleasant  country  seat  or  site  within  a 
compass  of  five  miles  around  you — would  be  in  demand. 
I  could  not  name  a  more  lucrative  speculation  or  invest- 
ment for  any  portion  of  your  funds.  The  dividends,  or 
pecuniary  benefits  would  be  shared  equitably  and  pro 
rata  by  all :  and  none  could  possibly  be  a  loser.  Your 
cotton  crops  may  fail — your  banks  may  fail — your  trade 
and  commerce  may  decline — ^}^our  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers may  run  away — but  the  University  will  never 
fail  you,  if  true  to  yourselves,  while  there  are  children 
in  the  land  to  be  educated. 

2.  The  University  will  confer  upon  our  good  city  a 
reputation  and  a  celebrity,  otherwise  unattainable,  and 
in  all  respects  the  most  desirable. 


378  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

3.  The  University  will  gradually  create  and  collect 
a  literary  society  among  us.  Such  a  society  exists  in 
every  city  and  village  in  our  country,  where  the  univer- 
sity has  been  fairly  domesticated,  and  nowhere  else. 
"We  have  not  what  may  be  called  a  literary  society  in 
Tennessee.  Nothing  like  it.  The  phrase,  even,  is 
scarcely  understood.  Our  social  parties  and  intercourse 
manifest  its  total  absence.  We  meet  together  to  eat, 
drink,  sing,  play  and  dance;  and  never  to  converse  as 
intellectual  and  intelligent  men  and  women.*  Now 
I  am  no  particular  admirer  of  pedants  or  hlue-stocldngs. 
But  I  do  entertain  the  fancy  that  rational  beings  might 
occasionally  assemble  at  the  social  fireside  for  a  rational 
purpose :  and  where  neither  the  Grecian  nor  the  savant 
would  be  voted  a  hore  or  a  hear.  I  doubt  whether  it 
be  wise  or  expedient  or  creditable  to  ape  the  extrava- 
gancies and  ostentation  of  a  London  or  Paris,  of  a  New 
York  or  Philadelphia.  We  cannot  aftbrd  it.  We  are 
too  poor.  Why,  I  have  heard  poverty  pleaded  by  not 
a  few  of  our  reputed  wealthy  citizens,  as  an  excuse  for 
not  giving  a  paper  dollar,  when  I  have  called  on  them  in 
my  official  character  as  Beggar  General  for  the  Univer- 
sity; and  urged,  too,  with  that  peculiarly  grave  and 
lugubrious  expression  of  countenance  which  never  fails 


*  I  have  not  said,  nor  do  I  mean  to  insinuate,  that  there  are  no 
literary  individuals  in  Tennessee.  There  may  be  as  large  a  propor- 
tion of  literary  men  and  women  in  Tennessee  and  in  Nashville  as  can 
be  found  anywhere,  or  as  any  native  may  choose  to  claim  ;  still,  all 
that  is  assumed  in  the  text  may  be  strictly  true.  There  may  be  no 
such  thing  as  a  literary  society,  or  as  social  intellectual  intercourse. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  379 

to  awaken  my  tenderest  sympathies.  And  I  do  intend, 
by  and  by,  to  get  up  something  or  other — it  may  be  a 
musical  concert,  or  a  subscription  ball,  or  a  benevolent 
association,  or  a  ladies'  fair — for  their  especial  relief  and 
benefit.  Alas,  the  tyranny  of  fashion  is  too  hard  upon 
them,  and  upon  us  all.  We  sport  our  dashing  carriages 
and  expensive  equipments  of  all  sorts,  at  the  hazard, 
sometimes,  of  our  honesty,  and  frequently  at  the  sacri- 
fice of  all  manly  independence  and  domestic  comfort  and 
generous  hospitality.  We  give  sumptuous  entertain- 
ments, and  squeeze  and  jam  and  stuff  and  loine  our 
friends  to  death  or  under  the  table;  in  order  to  be 
envied,  or  laughed  at  and  ridiculed  for  our  pains.  In  a 
word,  we  imitate  the  aristocratic  excesses  of  the  great 
cities :  w^iile  we  overlook  and  disregard  altogether  what 
in  them  is  most  worthy  of  our  emulation  and  fully 
Avithin  our  reach — and  withal,  vastly  more  simple  and 
democratic.  Their  literary  taste  and  superior  intelligence 
and  refinement,  we  might  aspire  to,  and  successfully  aim 
at,  and  profitably  cultivate.  A  Parisian  or  Genevese  or 
Italian  coterie,  or  soiree,  or  cojiversazione — where  the 
scholar,  the  artist,  the  author,  the  wit,  the  ethereal 
spirits  of  both  sexes,  the  beaux  esprits  of  every  clique 
and  profession,  partake  of  the  "feast  of  reason  and  the 
flow  of  soul,"  free  from  the  restraints  and  pains  and 
penalties  of  conventional  formalities  and  courtly  eti- 
quette— never  costs  much  to  the  host,  and  generally 
proves  exhilarating  and  delightful  to  the  guest.  Could 
we  introduce  somewhat  of  the  latter  custom  or  fashion 
into  our  social  arrangements,  I  think  we  should  be  the 


380  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

gainers  both  in  our  purses  and  in  our  enjoyments.  The 
University  will  effect  the  revolution,  and  infuse  the 
proper  spirit,  and  raise  up  the  requisite  elements  for  the 
purpose — all  in  due  time.  I  might  expatiate  much  more 
largely  upon  this  topic — especially  in  reference  to  our 
children,  and  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  community — 
but  I  forbear. 

4.  The  University  will  present  facilities  for  the  higher 
education  to  the  people  here,  which  they  could  not  other- 
wise command.  So  that  hundreds  of  parents  might  send 
their  sons  to  college,  while  they  can  board  and  clothe 
them  at  home,  who  could  never  send  them  to  a  distant 
seminary,  where  board  and  all  other  charges  must  be 
paid  for  in  cash  and  at  high  prices.  Indeed,  every 
industrious,  prudent,  temperate  man,  however  humble 
his  circumstances,  living  within  a  mile  or  two  of  the 
college,  might  give  his  sons  a  liberal  education ;  and 
thus  fit  them  for  any  station,  rank  or  profession,  within 
the  scope  of  their  talents  and  ambition.  This  would  be 
no  common  privilege.  And  experience,  in  other  places 
thus  favoured,  shows  that  the  poor  are  not  backward  in 
availing  themselves  of  it ;  much  to  their  credit,  and  to 
the  future  advancement  and  prosperity  of  their  children. 
Of  all  men  in  the  world,  therefore,  the  poor  assuredly, 
are  the  very  last  who  should  object  to  the  establishment 
of  a  university,  calculated  so  directly  to  improve  and 
elevate  their  own  condition,  and  to  secure  to  themselves 
advantages  not  otherwise  attainable,  —  but  which  the 
wealthy  could  purchase  elsewhere  and  at  any  expense. 

I  now  proceed  to  a  hasty  review  of  the  general  benefits 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  381 

which  the  university  proffers  and  insures  to  all  classes 
of  the  people  wherever  it  exists  and  prospers. 

I  use  the  term  luuverslty,  I  repeat,  as  equivalent  to 
the  best  possible  system  of  education,  and  in  reference 
to  the  highest  order  and  degree  of  intellectual  and  moral 
cultivation.  Wherever,  and  by  whatever  process,  the 
human  mind  is  most  effectually  imbued  and  enriched 
with  the  purest  treasures  of  science  and  knowledge,  and 
where  the  whole  man  is  duly  trained  and  qualified  for 
the  greatest  usefulness,  there  is  my  university.  Let  this 
definition  be  kept  in  view.  I  will  not  dispute  about 
words. 

I  affirm  then,  that  the  University,  as  just  explained, 
ever  has  been,  is  now,  and  ever  will  be,  the  grand  con- 
servative principle  of  civilization,  of  truth,  virtue,  learn- 
ing, liberty,  religion,  and  good  government  among  man- 
kind. To  the  university  are  we  indebted  for  all  the 
useful  arts,  laws,  morals,  enjoyments,  comforts,  conve- 
niences and  blessings  of  civilized  society.  There  has 
never  been  a  nation  or  community,  highly  enlightened 
and  civilized,  where  the  university  did  not  dispense  its 
kindly  influences,  or  where  it  did  not  occupy  a  com- 
manding position.  The  universities  of  Egypt,  Chaldaea, 
Pha'nicia,  Assj'ria,  Avere  the  sources  and  depositories, 
not  only  of  the  science,  literature  and  arts  which  so  pre- 
eminenth^  distinguished  those  ancient  States  during  a 
dozen  or  more  centuries ;  but  they  were  the  schools  at 
which  the  Grecian  sages,  Thales,  Pythagoras,  Plato,  and 
others,  studied  for  many  a  long  year;  and  whence  they 
transferred  to  a  European  soil  the  fruits  of  their  labo- 


382  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

rious  researches;  and  which,  finally,  the  Roman  and 
other  Western  universities  contributed  to  cherish  and 
to  preserve,  and  to  transmit  to  successive  generations. 

Had  I  time  for  the  task,  I  should  like  to  trace  the 
history  of  civilization  from  the  garden  of  Eden,  where 
was  planted  the  first  university,  with  the  Deity  at  its 
head,  and  with  the  gifted  father  of  mankind  as  his 
immediate  representative  and  vice-chancellor;  thence 
onward  to  the  universal  deluge;  from  Noah's  ark, 
along  the  banks  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates  and 
the  Nile,  over  the  plains  of  Shinar  and  upon  the  east- 
ern and  southern  shores  of  the  Mediterranean;  lingering 
awhile  at  old  Nineveh  and  Babylon  and  Tyre  and  Sid  on 
and  Thebes  and  Memphis ;  until  we  arrive  at  the  golden 
age  of  Grecian  beauty  and  perfection;  thence  to  repub- 
lican and  imperial  Rome  in  her  most  literate  and  palmy 
estate;  with  an  occasional  glance  at  the  Grecian  cities 
and  colonies  in  Asia,  Egypt,  Sicily;  and  note  the  condi- 
tion and  character  of  the  university  at  each  and  every 
step  of  our  progress.  Here  would  be  instructive  matter 
for  volumes,  exceedingly  appropriate  to  our  argument; 
which  we  must  pass,  however,  without  remark.  But 
the  paramount  influence  of  the  university  or  of  the 
higher  learning,  during  all  these  varying  epochs,  as  a 
preservative  of  civilization,  will  be  apparent  to  every 
competent  and  candid  observer. 

The  nations  of  antiquity  degenerated,  or  sunk  into 
barbarism,  just  as  the  university  was  neglected  or 
became  extinct  among  them.  During  the  Middle  or 
Dark  Ages,  the  university  throughout  Christian  Europe, 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  383 

was  as  a  light  hidden  under  a  bushel;  ready,  indeed,  to 
shine  forth  in  all  its  pristine  splendours,  as  soon  as  the 
Vandalism  of  the  exterior  and  surrounding  world  could 
be  abated,  and  rendered  docile  and  practicable.  Still, 
even,  while  the  Christian  university  had,  as  it  were, 
retreated  within  the  walls  of  the  cloister  and  the  mo- 
nastery, and  seemed  resolved  to  leave  the  rude  and 
vulgar  millions  to  their  fate,  it  was  gloriously  exalted 
and  honoured  among  the  Saracenic  Moslems.  If  Athens 
and  Rome  had  been  deserted  by  the  muses  and  the  philo- 
sopher, it  was  only  to  find  a  more  congenial  home  at 
Cordova  and  Bagdad.  If  the  doors  of  the  university 
were,  for  a  time,  hermetically  sealed  to  the  inquisitive 
and  aspiring  youth  of  Christendom,  they  were  thrown 
wide  open  in  every  city  of  the  Arabian  Prophet's  vast 
empire  —  from  the  Lidus  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules. 
Thus  the  Crescent,  at  length,  protected  and  fostered 
the  science  which  the  Cross  affected  to  despise.  But 
at  no  period  of  our  world's  history,  has  the  university 
been,  utterly  prostrated,  in  all  countries,  at  one  and 
the  same  time.  Civilization  and  the  university  have 
stood  or  fallen  together.  They  have  never  been  di- 
vorced. They  were  created  together;  and  amidst  all 
the  changes  and  revolutions  of  human  governments  and 
religions,  they  have  dwelt  together  in  peace  and  har- 
mony. The  university  has  never  been  found  among 
savages  or  barbarians:  and  all  the  nations  and  tribes 
upon  our  globe  are  barbarians  or  savages  at  this  da}, 
where  the  university  is  not,  or  where  its  cheering  and 
illuminating  beams  have  not  penetrated. 


384  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

If  to  this  broad  statement,  it  be  ol)jectecl,  that  science, 
literature  and  refinement  abound  in  regions  where  no 
university  has  been  estabUshed;  I  answer,  that  the 
beneficial  effects  of  the  university  are  oftentimes  ex- 
perienced at  great  distances  from  its  actual  location. 
The  universities  of  Egypt  extended  their  salutary  and 
redeeming  spirit  even  to  barbarous  Greece.  Those  of 
Europe  are  felt  in  America.  And  those  of  Massachu- 
setts and  Virginia  may  operate  in  Tennessee  and  Texas. 
In  the  present  condition  of  the  commercial  and  mission- 
ary world,  the  influence  of  the  university  is  visible  in 
almost  ever}  quarter — in  New  Holland  and  the  South 
Sea  Islands — on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges  and  the  Congo 
and  the  Amazon — and  wherever  European  or  American 
civilization  has  acquired  even  a  partial  or  temporary 
resting  place. 

If  again,  we  be  directed  to  self-taught  and  self-made 
men,  as  a  triumphant  negative  to  our  whole  theory;  I 
tell  you  that  self-taught  men  (as  they  are  styled,)  such 
as  Franklin,  Ferguson,  Shakspeare,  Watt,  Arkwright, 
Henry,  Fulton,  Davie,  are  or  were  just  as  much  in- 
debted to  the  university,  as  were  Bacon,  Selden,  New- 
ton, Burke,  Jefferson,  Jay,  Madison  or  Whitney.  The 
latter  drank  at  the  Fountain;  the  former  at  the  streams 
which  issue  from  it.  Had  Franklin  been  born  and  bred 
among  savages,  he  might  have  become  the  first  among 
the  prophets  or  chiefs  of  his  tribe,  but  he  would  never 
have  been  enrolled  among  the  greatest  philosophers  and 
statesmen  of  the  civilized  world.  Washington,  too,  might 
have  been  the  Tecumseh  or  Black  Hawk  of  the  wilder- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  385 

ness,  but  not  the  Saviour,  the  Founder,  the  Father  of  a 
mighty  Republic  of  enlightened  and  happy  freemen.  He 
had  studied  in  the  school  of  Locke  and  Milton,  of  Sidney 
and  Hampden,  of  Tell  and  Phocion;  and  like  them,  was 
liheralJy  educated.  He  was  not  a  scJiohir,  in  the  strict 
technical  meaning  of  the  term;  though  his  scholarship 
was  respectable,  and  far  superior  to  that  of  many  a 
college  graduate.  But  a  man  may  be  a  scholar  without 
being  liberally  educated  or  liberally  minded,  as  he  may 
be  liberally  educated  without  being  a  scholar.  Mere 
professional  men.  whose  studies  and  practice  are  re- 
stricted to  their  professions,  as  lawyers,  pln'sicians, 
theologians,  linguists,  mathematicians,  seldom  possess 
those  enlarged,  catholic,  comprehensive  views  and  senti- 
ments which  constitute  genuine  Jiheixdlfy ;  and  which 
are  essential  to  the  character  of  the  philosopher,  the 
publicist,  the  statesman,  the  philanthropist.  They  may 
be  admirable  and  exceedingly  useful  in  their  respective 
and  appropriate  spheres,  and  worthy  of  all  praise,  while 
they  are  content  to  act  well  the  part  which  they  have 
learned  and  understand.  Thanks  again  to  the  univer- 
sity for  both  the  larger  and  the  lesser  stars;  but  let 
them  move  and  shine  in  their  own  proper  orbits. 

But  after  all,  we  may  be  told  that  we  need  only  a 
small  supply  of  university  scholars;  and  that  it  is 
not  worth  while  to  be  at  the  expense  of  such  an  in- 
stitution for  so  trivial  an  object.  Conceding,  for  a  mo- 
ment, what  I  do  not  admit,  that  only  a  limited  number 
of  thoroughly  educated  men  are  actually  required,  or 
are,  on  any  account,  desjrable  in  such  a  community  as 

VOL.  I.  25 


386  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

ours,  let  us  see  how  many  are  wanted,  and  whence  they 
are  to  be  procured.  It  has  generally  been  assumed  that 
lawyers,  physicians,  clergymen,  judges,  jurists,  cabinet 
ministers,  ambassadors  to  foreign  courts,  and  teachers  of 
the  liberable  sciences,  ought  to  be  learned  and  accom- 
plished men.  I  suppose  it  would  not  be  amiss  also,  if 
our  legislators  and  politicians,  our  editors  of  public  jour- 
nals, our  civil  engineers,  our  bankers  and  financiers,  our 
conductors  of  all  great  private  or  corporate  establish- 
ments, were  well  educated.  If  so,  the  number  must  be 
large — several  thousand  at  the  least.  These  must  be 
suitably  educated  here  at  home ;  or  a  sufficient  number 
of  our  youth  must  be  sent  abroad  for  the  purpose ;  or  we 
must  import  them,  ready  made,  from  Europe  or  the  other 
States,  that  is,  we  must  intrust  to  foreigners  or  strangers 
our  most  important  interests,  offices  and  professions ;  or 
we  must  get  along  without  them,  in  other  words,  employ 
incompetent  men.  The  latter  alternative,  I  know,  will 
prevail;  and,  I  know  also,  that  it  is  popular.  We  do 
employ  incompetent  men — sometimes  from  necessity — 
oftener  from  choice,  when  we  might  get  better.  And 
this  arises  from  our  general  ignorance.  I  do  not  believe 
that  any  man  would  employ  an  ignorant  lawyer  or  doctor, 
if  he  knew  the  fact,  or  were  capable  of  judging  of  the 
qualifications  of  the  one  or  the  other.  Nor  would 
our  people  elect  to  any  office  a  candidate  whom  they 
believed  too  ignorant  to  serve  them  faithfully  and  effi- 
ciently. But  a  very  little  sJiow  of  knowledge  and  ability, 
with  a  good  deal  of  cunning  and  impudence,  will  easily 
impose  on  honest  unsuspecting  credulity.      Here  then, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  387 

the  uiiiversity  will  remedy  two  defects  at  once.  It  will 
furnish  learned  men  of  every  station  where  learning  is 
needful:  and  it  will  gradually  enlighten  and  elevate 
the  general  mind  so  as  to  be  able  to  discriminate  be- 
tween the  sciolist  and  the  scholar,  between  obtrusive 
overweening  self-sufficiency  and  modest  sterling  merit. 

If  we  could  compute  in  dollars,  by  any  species  of 
arithmetic,  the  loss  of  property  and  Kfe,  of  health  and 
comfort,  and  the  injury  to  morals  and  religion,  occa- 
sioned, during  a  single  year,  by  ignorant  blundering, 
specious,  dogmatical,  illiterate  lawyers,  doctors  and 
preachers,  by  vicious  or  excessive  legislation,  by  judi- 
cial injustice,  by  unskilful  or  fraudulent  banking,  by 
venal,  lying,  superficial  newspaper  editors,  by  bullying 
grog-shop  politicians,  by  stupid  drivelling  schoolmasters, 
by  reckless,  drunken,  untaught  steamboat  and  railroad 
masters  and  engineers,  by  avaricious  irresponsible  stage- 
coach proprietors  and  agents,  by  travelling  mountebanks 
and  impostors,  by  all  sorts  of  rogues  and  asses  in  high 
places, — ^we  should  sum  up  an  amount  sufficient  to  pur- 
chase, in  fee  simple,  a  dozen  German  principalities,  uni- 
versities and  all;  or  enough  to  create  a  fund,  the  interest 
of  which  would  support  our  State  government  and  insti- 
tutions forever. 

Ignorance  never  did  any  good,  and  never  will  or  can 
do  any  good.  Ignorant  men  are  good  for  nothing,  except 
so  far  as  they  are  governed  and  directed  by  intelligent 
superiors.  Hence  it  is  the  order  of  Providence  that,  in 
every  well  regulated  community,  children  and  all  grossly 
ignorant   persons   are   held   in   subjection   to    age    and 


388  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOUESES. 

wisdom  and  experience.  No  species  or  portion  even  of 
the  humblest  manual  or  mechanical  labour  can  be  per- 
formed until  the  party  be  taught  how  to  do  it.  The 
least  that  can  be  required  of  any  man  is,  that  he  be 
qualified  for  the  office  or  vocation  which  he  aspires  to 
occupy  or  pursue.  Invincible  ignorance  alone  is  ex- 
cusable. But  even  this  will  not  justifj-  his  ambition  or 
desire  to  transcend  his  proper  sphere,  or  his  bungling  at- 
tempts to  do  what  he  knows  not  and  cannot  do. — As,  for 
example,  to  construct  a  telescope  or  chronometer,  when 
he  has  learned  only  to  head  a  nail  or  point  a  pin ;  or  to 
amputate  a  limb  and  heal  the  sick,  when  he  has  been 
trained  to  ply  the  axe  or  drive  a  dray;  or  to  dabble 
in  the  law,  because  his  speaking  organs  have  caught  the 
perjjetual  motion;  or  to  guide  a  train  of  railway  cars, 
after  having  duly  served  a  six  years'  apprenticeship  to 
the  b.'irber's  craft  and  mystery,  as  was  lately  done  in 
Virginia  to  the  destruction  of  a  score  of  lives  and  the 
fracture  of  a  hundred  limbs ;  or  to  preach  the  gospel,  in 
utter  defiance  of  the  well-known  canon,  "ne  sutor  ultra 
crepidam,"  "let  the  shoemaker  stick  to  his  last  and  the 
tailor  to  his  goose."  Now  the  barber  may  be  a  very 
useful  citizen  and  a  very  worthy  gentleman — as  gentle- 
men are  ye  all,  in  this  country,  except  us  poor  school- 
masters— but  if  he  has  learned  nothing  more  than  to 
shave  the  lieges  and  to  rig  out  new  upper  stories  for 
ladies  of  a  certain  age,  then  may  I  be  spared  the 
pleasure  of  a  railroad  jaunt  when  next  he  enacts  the 
ambitious  Phaeton  or  daring  engineer ! 

I  do  not  mean  to  insinuate  that  a  mechanic  or  plough- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  389 

man  may  not  become  an  accomplished  lawyer,  artist, 
statesman,  or  college  professor.  But,  then,  he  must 
study  and  learn  whatever  his  new  profession  implies  or 
demands.  His  skill  in  the  shop  or  the  field  will  not 
avail  him  here.  Franklin  was  an  excellent  printer :  but 
his  trade  did  not  make  him  a  philosopher  or  diplomatist. 
Roger  Sherman  ^vas  a  very  good  shoemaker;  but  he 
studied  law  and  politics  before  he  commanded  the  ear 
and  the  reverence  of  Congress.  James  Ferguson  was 
bred  a  poor  shepherd's  boy :  but  his  reputation  as  a  writer 
and  lecturer  upon  Astronomy  and  Mechanics,  was  won 
by  his  mastery  of  Newton's  astonishing  discoveries  and 
revelations.  And  the  most  learned  Orientalist  in  Eng- 
land, and  a  Professor  in  one  of  her  imperial  universities, 
was  once  an  illiterate  labouring  carpenter.  But  the  saw 
and  the  plane  did  not  unlock  for  him  the  temple  doors 
of  science  or  raise  him  to  a  peerless  throne  among  its 
votaries. 

I  honour  every  mechanic,  and  every  farmer,  and  every 
working  man,  who  diligently  and  honestly  pursues  the 
noiseless  tenor  of  his  way,  without  ever  seeking  a  differ- 
ent or  higher  calling.  But  if  he  would  fain  become  a 
ruler  or  office-bearer  in  the  land,  I  must  examine 
his  credentials  and  be  certified  of  his  knowledge  and 
qualifications.  If  these  prove  satisfactory,  I  will  cheer- 
fully accord  to  him  my  suffrage  and  confidence,  and  the 
respect  to  which  his  extraordinary  merit  may  be  justly 
entitled.  I  would  rather  be  a  good  blacksmith,  than  to 
be  a  sorry,  empty-headed,  pettifogging  lawyer.  The 
blacksmith,  for  his  particular  vocation,  is  the  better  edu- 


390  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

cated,  and  the  better  principled,  and  the  more  deserving 
citizen  of  the  two.  I  suppose  there  are  some  five 
hundred  "attorneys  at  law"  in  Tennessee,  who  might  be 
converted  into  tolerably  decent  blacksmiths,  much  to 
their  own  and  the  public's  benefit,  could  they  be  induced 
to  submit  to  a  reasonable  discipline  and  schooling  in  our 
Legislature's  favourite  university;  which  is,  at  once,  the 
cheapest  and  most  efficient,  manual  labour  establishment 
in  all  the  land.  Its  value  and  importance,  too,  will  be 
more  apparent  every  year;  and  just  in  proportion  to  the 
lack  or  failure  of  other  institutions,  and  to  the  increase 
of  ignorance,  idleness  and  quackery  among  us. 

As  the  periodical  press  and  tlie  pulpit  are  calculated 
to  exert  a  more  powerful  influence  upon  society,  for  weal 
or  wo,  than  any  other  instrumentalities  whatever,  it  fol- 
lows, that,  of  all  men  living,  ministers  of  the  gospel  and 
newspaper  editors  ought  to  be  the  most  talented,  and 
the  most  profoundly  and  extensively  conversant  with 
every  species  of  human  learning.  The  editors  of  our 
daily,  weekly,  monthly,  quarterly  journals,  furnish  a 
large  proportion  of  the  readliuj  of  our  people.  They 
wield  an  engine  therefore  of  the  most  tremendous, 
potent  and  responsible  character.  And  if  the  univer- 
sity be  needed  for  any  one  class  of  public  instructors  or 
functionaries  rather  than  another,  it  is  to  furnish  accom- 
plished and  erudite  and  trustworthy  editors.  Such  as 
Franklin  became :  and  such  as  the  illustrious  and  classic 
authors  of  the  Federalist  might  have  been,  had  they 
chosen  to  be  editors,  instead  of  being  anonymous  contri- 
butors and  correspondents. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  391 

As  to  preaching  the  gospel,  I  am  aware  that  some  men 
fancy  that  human  learning  is  quite  superfluous.  And 
that  just  in  proportion  to  its  absence,  will  be  the 
evidence  of  the  preacher's  inspiration  and  paramount 
claims  to  the  implicit  faith  and  respect  of  the  people. 
All  Scripture,  history,  reason  and  experience,  however, 
teach  a  very  different  doctrine.  The  university  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  minister  of  the  gospel.  A  large  amount 
and  variety  of  intellectual  furniture  must  be  acquired  by 
the  preacher,  whether  settled  or  itinerant,  whether  pas- 
tor or  missionary,  or  he  Avill  never  be  eminently  useful — 
probably  altogether  useless — or,  most  likely,  injurious  to 
the  sacred  cause  which  he  professionally  and  ostensibly 
labours  to  advance.  K  knowledge  sometimes  puffeth 
up,  and  renders  its  possessor  vain  and  arrogant,  does  it 
therefore  follow  that  knowledge  is  an  evil,  and  at  war 
with  virtue  and  charity?  Who  are  more  assuming,  in- 
tolerant, dogmatical,  overbearing,  opinionated,  exclusive, 
self-sufficient,  bigoted  or  ostentatious,  than  your  igno- 
rant, superficial,  boisterous,  declamatory  preachers  ?  It  is 
notorious  also,  that  the  unlearned  habitually  make  a 
greater  display  of  learning,  parade  more  Greek  and  He- 
brew without  understanding  a  word  of  either,  sport  more 
scholastic  technicalities,  and  talk  more  about,  books  and 
authorities  and  incomprehensible  mysteries,  than  any 
genuine  scholar  would  ever  adventure  upon  in  the  pulpit 
or  out  of  it.  They  thus  expose  themselves,  and  too  fre- 
quently their  doth  and  the  cause  of  Christianity  itself, 
to  the  contempt  and  derision  of  the  intelligent  and 
discerning — w^ho  know  little  or  nothing  of  the   Bible, 


392  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

and  who  judge  of  religion  chiefly  from  the  conduct  and 
exhibitions  of  this  class  of  preachers. 

If  it  be  said  that  the  Deity  has  no  need  of  human 
learning  to  propagate  his  religion,  it  may  be  replied, 
that,  neither  has  he  any  need  of  human  ignorance.  He 
could,  if  he  chose,  dis]3ense  with  human  agency  alto- 
gether. But  we  have  yet  to  learn  that  Infinite  Wisdom 
has  ever  selected  an  insufficient  or  inadequate  agency 
for  any  purpose  whatever.  In  the  days  of  prophecy  and 
miracle,  from  Moses  to  Paul,  he  never  employed  human 
ignorance  in  the  work  of  religious  instruction.  If  they 
were  not  all  educated  in  the  universities  of  Egypt  as 
was  Moses,  or  of  Judea  as  was  Isaiah,  or  of  Babylon  as 
was  Daniel,  or  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel  as  was  Paul,  they 
were  well  trained  somewhere  and  by  competent  masters, 
as  were  the  fishermen  of  Galilee  by  Christ  himself, 
besides  being  endowed  with  the  gift  of  tongues  and 
extraordinary  communications  for  every  emergency. 
Witness  the  prophets  and  apostles,  and  the  primitive 
fathers  and  martja^s  of  the  church.  And  since  that 
period,  witness  the  reformers  and  missionaries  and  all 
the  bright  luminaries  of  Christendom.  If  they  did  not 
all  study  at  the  university,  as  did  Wickliffe,  and  Huss, 
and  Jerome,  and  Luther,  and  Melanchthon,  and  Zuin- 
glius,  and  Calvin,  and  Knox,  and  Cranmer,  and  Latimer, 
and  Whitefield,  and  Wesley,  and  Eliot,  and  Brainerd, 
and  Edwards,  and  Horsley,  and  Martyn  and  Swartz,  yet 
they  learned  from  those  who  had  been  graduated  at  the 
university,  or  from  books  which  the  university  had  cre- 
ated and  multiplied.  —  As  was  the  case  with  Richard 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  393 

Baxter,  Andrew  Fuller,  William  Carey,  Robert  Morri- 
son, Adam  Clarke,  Thomas  Scott,  Cornelius  Winter, 
William  Jay,  Joshua  Marshman,  William  Ward,  and  a 
host  of  similar  spirits.  None  of  whom  ever  despised  or 
neglected  human  science,  or  affected  to  be  above  the  wis- 
dom of  the  university.  K  any  of  them  commenced 
their  ministerial  labours,  imperfectly  prepared,  as,  no 
doubt,  many  did,  they  soon  discovered  their  own  defi- 
ciencies ;  and,  like  honest  men,  as  they  were,  put  them- 
selves to  school  again  and  became  humble  persevering 
learners.  And  thus,  by  extra  effort  and  diligence,  kept 
in  advance  of  their  own  pupils  and  hearers ;  and,  in  pro- 
cess of  time,  rose  to  distinguished  eminence  among  the 
most  profound  theologians  and  erudite  scholars  of  their 
day.  Thus  it  has  ever  been,  and  ever  will  be,  witli  all 
truly  conscientious  ministers  of  the  gospel.  However 
ill-instructed  or  poorly  qualified  at  the  outset,  they  will, 
like  John  Bunyan  or  John  Newton,  read  and  study,  and 
meditate  and  reflect,  as  best  they  can,  whether  immured 
in  a  prison  or  sailing  upon  the  ocean.  Nor  can  I  con- 
ceive of  a  more  pitiable  object  than  a  public  teacher  of 
the  Christian  religion  who  is  not  always  seeking  and 
thirsting  after  knowledge  as  for  hidden  treasures,  or  who 
denounces  learning,  and  is  content  to  lead  a  life  of  idle- 
ness and  ignorance. 

The  Bible  is  a  book,  or  rather  a  collection  of  books, 
composed  by  divers  authors,  in  dialects  long  since  obso- 
lete, during  a  period  of  some  fifteen  hundred  years,  and 
treating  of  the  most  difficult,  momentous  and  dissimilar 
topics.     And  there  is  not  a  single  science  or  branch  of 


394  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

literature,  within  the  whole  range  of  human  research, 
which  may  not  be  profitably  consecrated  to  its  exposition 
and  illustration.  Nor  has  there  yet  lived  the  man,  who 
found  himself  encumbered  with  too  much  learning 
for  this  sacred  work,  or  who  could  not  bring  his  every 
attainment  and  his  everj^  faculty  to  bear  upon  it  and  to 
contribute  to  its  better  accomplishment.  Such  men  as 
Seidell  and  Grotius  and  Locke  and  Newton  and  Jones 
and  Kennicott  have  amply  testified  that,  to  grapple  with 
the  Bible,  was  no  child's  play.  The  astronomer,  the  his- 
torian, the  chronologer,  the  critic,  the  antiquary,  the  tra- 
veller, the  chemist,  the  geologist,  have  all  and  each  in 
turn,  made  discoveries  which  they  fancied  must  tell 
against  Moses  and  his  successors.  And  theologians,  in 
their  ignorance  and  zeal,  have  hastily  condemned  and 
repudiated  their  science,  as  well  as  their  gratuitous  and 
false  application  of  it.  But  a  more  thorough  study  of 
Moses  by  the  scientific,  and  a  deeper  acquaintance  with 
science  by  the  theologian,  have  undeceived  and  recon- 
ciled both  parties.  So  that  the  two  great  volumes  of 
Nature  and  Revelation,  equally. the  product  of  the  same 
unchanging  Divinity,  are  now  acknowledged  to  harmo- 
nize and  to  speak  the  same  language.  Not  a  principle 
or  fact  has  been  established  or  brought  to  light,  by  the 
brilliant  labours  of  a  Hutton,  a  Playfair,  a  Kepler,  a 
Herschel,  a  La  Place,  a  Cuvier,  a  Hauy,  a  Champollion, 
a  De  la  Beche,  a  Buckland,  a  Lyell  or  an  Ehrenberg, 
which  does  not  accord  with  the  Mosaic  history  and  phi- 
losophy, when  rightly  interpreted;  as  the  ablest  living 
divines   cheerfully  concede.      Hume    and   Gibbon   and 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  395 

Halley  and  Voltaire  and  D'Alembert  and  Buffon  and 
Condorcet  and  Volney  have  yielded  to  a  more  en- 
lightened school;  as  have  the  persecutors  of  Roger 
Bacon,  Galileo  and  Copernicus  given  place  to  a  more 
tolerant,  charitable  and  scriptural  theology. 

But  again,  in  a  country  like  ours,  where  the  people 
govern,  the  university  is  greatly  needed  to  furnish  a 
class  of  men  sufficiently  numerous  and  qualified  to 
enlighten  the  mass  of  the  people  upon  general  poli- 
tics—  upon  the  Constitution,  government,  laws,  juris- 
prudence, and  institutions  of  the  Republic.  If  every 
individual  cannot  become  familiar  with  these  subjects 
by  his  o^YTl  reading  and  reflection,  it  is  desirable  at  least 
that  an  adequate  instructor  and  guide  should  be  at  hand 
on  whose  information  and  judgment  he  may  safely  rely. 
Now  the  people  are  called  on,  at  every  election,  to  decide 
upon  some  of  the  most  intricate,  complex  and  difficult 
questions  of  State  policy — involving  their  own  and  the 
interests  of  posterity  to  an  indefinite  extent.  And  how 
shall  they  vote  upon  measures  which  they  do  not  under- 
stand? What  do  thef/  know,  or  what  do  our  compara- 
tively wise  men  know,  for  example,  about  the  just  prin- 
ciples of  taxation,  or  tariff,  or  finance,  or  banking,  or 
usury  laws  —  of  our  foreign  relations,  of  our  Indian 
policy,  of  internal  improvements,  or  of  any  constitu- 
tional doctrine  or  controversy — or  indeed,  of  the  very 
elements  of  political  economy  or  jurisprudence  or  legis- 
lation? And  yet,  they  are  expected  annually  to  pro- 
nounce aij  or  710,  without  hesitation,  on  a  dozen  or  more 
untried  projects,  which  it  might  puzzle  even  a  Solomon 


396  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

fully  to  appreciate,  in  all  their  bearings,  after  the  most 
intense  study  and  mature  deliberation.  Our  political 
candidates  for  office  and  our  newspaper  editors  are  the 
exclusive  monopolists  of  this  entire  department  of  popu- 
lar instruction.  I  have  two  objections  to  this  monopoly. 
(1.)  Forty-nine  out  of  fifty  of  the  said  politicians  and 
editors  are  themselves  too  ignorant  for  the  service. 
And  (2.)  were  they  ever  so  well  informed,  they  cannot 
be  trusted.  It  is  their  interest  and  their  vocation  to 
mislead,  deceive,  liumhug  and  mystify  the  whole  body  of 
the  sovereign  people. 

The  university  has  ever  been  the  friend  and  the 
nursery  of  common  schools  —  when  left  to  its  own 
natural  freedom  of  action.  In  modern  times,  where- 
ever  the  university  has  flourished  untrammeled  and 
unrestricted  by  jealous,  arbitrary  authority,  there  the 
common  school  has  taken  root  and  prospered  also.  This 
fact  is  notorious,  indisputable  and  undisputed.  In  no 
country,  at  this  day,  do  we  behold  the  slightest  approach 
to  a  good  common  school  system,  except  where  the  uni- 
versity is  honoured  and  liberally  sustained.  Scotland, 
Prussia,  Germany,  Holland,  New  England  and  New 
York  may  serve  as  proof  and  comment.  I  hold  the 
attempt  to  create  and  foster  common  schools,  without 
the  aid  of  the  university,  to  be  utterly  vain  and  nuga- 
tory. It  cannot  be  done.  But  establish  an  efficient, 
free-working  university  anywhere — whether  among  the 
Turks,  the  Tartars  or  the  Hottentots — and  the  common 
schools  will  spontaneously  grow  up  around  it  and  be- 
neath  its   influence. — As   certainly  as   light   and   heat 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  397 

flow  from  the  sun  in  the  firmament.  It  is  in  fact  the 
great  Luminary  of  the  intellectual  firmament.  The 
common  school  is  the  child  and  not  the  parent — the 
effect  and  not  the  cause — of  the  university.  The  uni- 
versity will  furnish  the  teachers  and  the  learning  which 
are  indispensable  to  the  inferior  schools  and  seminaries : 
and  it  will  awaken  the  desire  and  the  ambition  among 
all  classes  to  acquire  knowledge  and  to  support  schools. 

It  would  be  impossible,  at  this  moment,  to  find  in 
Tennessee  a  hundredth  part  of  the  duly  qualified  in- 
structors necessary  to  put  into  immediate  operation  any 
general  school  system  whatever.  No  man  can  teach 
what  he  does  not  thoroughly  understand.  Whatever 
art  or  science  he  professes  to  teach  others,  he  must  first 
learn  himself.  K  you  would  have  competent  teachers 
of  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  grammar,  history,  geo- 
graphy, the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  land,  and 
whatever  else  our  youth  ought  to  learn  at  school  in 
order  to  become  useful  citizens,  you  must  first  provide 
for  their  proper  training.  That  is,  you  must  send  them 
to  the  higher  schools  and  colleges  and  universities  of 
your  own  or  some  other  State.  A  thousand  young  men 
ought  now  to  be  thus  in  training,  or  in  a  course  of  pre- 
paration for  the  business  of  school-keeping.  Send  them 
to  the  University,  at  the  State's  expense,  and  they  will 
not  fail  to  become  qualified  for  the  service  in  due  time. 
Or,  enable  the  University,  by  suitable  endowments,  to 
open  her  doors  to  all  comers,  and  to  educate  ever^^  poor 
talented  youth  without  charge;  and  you  will  soon  be 
supplied  with  indigent  but  accomplished  scholars,  who 


398  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

will  be  glad  to  teach  for  a  livelihood.  They  will  them- 
selves become  piogeers  and  missionaries  in  the  cause  of 
education.  They  will  search  out  and  expose  the  wants 
and  destitution  of  the  people,  and  will  plant  schools 
in  every  village  and  in  every  neighbourhood  where 
children  can  be  found.  Tennessee,  with  her  present 
ample  resources,  might  organize  and  endow  a  univer- 
sity which  could  impart  gratuitous  instruction  to  all 
her  studious  and  deserving  youth;  and  thus  eventually 
elevate  the  standard  of  education,  and  insure  its  advan- 
tages to  every  portion  and  order  of  its  rapidly  increasing 
population.  If  Nashville  should  not  be  deemed  the  most 
eligible  site  for  such  an  establishment,  let  the  Legisla- 
ture select  a  better.* 

The  university,  again,  is  the  steadfast  ally  and  the 
consistent  advocate  of  liberty  and  the  rights  of  man. 
It  ever  has  been  so,  except  when  checked  and  enslaved 
by  political  or  ecclesiastical  despotism.  The  light  of 
truth  and   freedom  has  occasionally  gleamed   from  the 

*  Having  on  various  occasions  heretofore,  discoursed  at  large  on  the 
subject  of  common  schools — having  reviewed  the  systems  which  obtain 
in  all  our  States  and  in  several  countries  in  Europe — having  expressed 
my  opinion  freely  upon  each,  and  also  upon  the  expediency  of  pro- 
viding schools  for  the  education  of  teachers,  &c.  it  was  not  my 
purpose,  in  the  above  remarks,  to  do  more  than  barely  to  point 
out  the  dependence  of  common  schools  upon  the  University.  Our 
poor  college  graduates  will,  after  all,  prove  our  best  common  school- 
masters, even  though  they  may  not  be  ambitious  to  teach  for  life. 
Well  educated  and  clever  Americans  will  not  be  content  to  work  like 
Prussians,  in  comparative  obscurity  and  poverty.  The  planter's  over- 
seer or  negro-driver  is  better  paid  for  his  learned  labours,  than  any 
common  school  teacher  in  all  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 


EDUCATIUXAL     DISCOURSES.  399 

portals  of  the  university,  even  when  most  enslaved,  and 
when  more  than  Cimmerian  darkness  prevailed  around 
it — as  in  the  ages  and  persons  of  Roger  Bacon  and  John 
Wickliife.  "While,  at  each  successive  struggle  for  human 
liberty,  from  Luther  to  Hampden  and  Wilberforce  and 
Brougham,  its  most  efficient  cLampions  and  defenders 
have  issued  from  the  university. 

It  was  the  university  which  awakened  or  rather 
created  the  desire  of  ci\il  and  religious  liberty  in 
France.  And  all  the  incipient  measures  and  move- 
ments of  her  grand,  but  disastrous  revolution,  were 
suggested  and  directed  by  the  wisest  and  most  intelli- 
gent of  her  educated  sons.  And  had  the  people  been 
sufficiently  enlightened  to  submit  to  the  counsels  and 
guidance  of  Lafayette  and  liis  illustrious  coadjutors,  the 
result  had  been  widely  different,  and  as  glorious  as  the 
cause  was  just  and  honourable.  She  failed,  because  the 
university  had  not  been  suffered  to  operate  upon  the 
popular  mind. 

Greece,  too,  at  the  instance  of  her  young  men,  who 
had  studied  at  the  universities  of  France  and  Germany, 
and  at  those  of  her  own  Bucharest  and  beautiful  Scio, 
shook  off  the  Moslem  yoke,  which  she  had  tamely  worn 
for  centuries.  And  if  her  present  institutions  and  forms 
of  government  are  not  as  liberal  and  generous  as  they 
were  in  the  days  of  Pericles  and  Miltiades,  of  Plato  and 
Socrates,  it  is  because  the  university  has  not  yet  illumi- 
nated and  elevated  the  ignorant  and  besotted  mass  of 
her  degenerate  population. 

The  university  is,  moreover,  the  dread  and  terror  of 


400  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

every  legitimate  despotism  in  modern  Europe.  In  spite 
of  all  the  vigilant  jealousy  with  which  it  is  guarded  in 
order  to  repress  the  spirit  of  free  inquiry  among  its  pro- 
fessors and  students,  it  is  well  known  that  they  are  se- 
cretly imbibing  principles  which  will  one  day  reach,  if 
they  have  not  already  reached,  the  cottage  and  the 
palace,  the  army  and  the  church;  and  cause  tyranny, 
under  every  guise,  to  relax  its  iron  grasp,  or  to  fall 
beneath  the  universal  conviction  of  its  injustice  and 
imbecility.  In  fact,  already  throughout  German}^,  and 
several  other  countries,  the  condition  of  the  people  has 
been  greatly  meliorated  and  improved,  in  consequence 
of  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  by  the  university;  so  that 
the  arbitrary  or  capricious  exertion  of  despotic  power  is 
seldom  felt  or  witnessed.  In  this  respect,  they  are  in- 
comparably better  governed  than  Spain,  Portugal,  Italy 
or  Russia,  Avhere  the  university  has  been  still  more 
effectually  controlled  and  fettered  by  the  monarch 
and  the  priest.  I  repeat  then,  that  wherever  the  uni- 
versity is  itself  free,  it  will,  sooner  or  later,  make  the 
people  free — even  while  living  under  a  nominal  mo- 
narchy or  despotism.  And  it  will  as  certainly  qualify 
them  for  self-government. 

Spanish  America  has  become  independent — but  the 
people  are  not  free.  While,  througliout  British  America, 
whether  colonial  or  independent,  the  people  are  and 
ever  have  been  free.  The  university  was  transported  to 
this  new  world  in  the  gallant  "May  Flower,"  which 
landed  upon  Plymouth  rock  the  first  little  colony  of 
Anglo-American  republicans.     And  it  was  forthwith  set 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSFS.  401 

up.  in  good  style,  in  the  town  of  Cambridge,  where  it 
has  ever  since  been  the  nurser}^  of  common  schools  and 
the  guardian  genius  of  constitutional  libert}'.  In  the 
university  were  bred  the  noble  and  gifted  patriots,  who 
dared  to  assert  and  maintain,  at  every  hazard  and  sacri- 
fice, their  own  and  their  countrymen's  indefeasible  birth- 
rights—  as  free  born  Englishmen  —  against  every  insi- 
dious or  violent  effort  to  subject  them  to  arbitrary 
illegal  domination.  By  these  choice  spirits  was  our 
independence  achieved:  and  to  these  are  we  indebted 
for  our  national  existence,  and  for  all  our  free  republican 
pri\aleges  and  institutions.  Our  college  graduates  and 
our  college  students  were  the  first  to  speak,  the  first  to 
act,  and  the  first  to  fight,  in  the  cause  of  their  country. 
They  were  all  Whigs  then :  and  they  will  be  Whigs  for- 
ever. 

It  is  w^orthy  of  special  remark,  that  the  principal  men 
— the  leading  influential  characters  —  the  master  spirits 
of  all  the  primitive  English  colonies,  from  Massachusetts 
to  Georgia,  were  individuals  of  the  highest  order  of 
talent,  morality,  education  and  respectability  at  home. 
They  came  hither,  not  for  wealth  or  power,  but  in 
search  of  that  political  and  religious  freedom  and  tran- 
quillity, which  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  father- 
land seemed  likel}-  to  deny  them.  The}'  left  behind 
them  the  monarchy,  the  aristocracy  and  the  hierarchy. 
They  brought  with  them  the  learning,  the  virtue,  the 
piety,  the  enterprise,  the  indomitable  love  of  liberty, 
which  distinguished  England's  noblest  sons,  and  what- 
ever was  strictly  republican  in  her  institutions.     With 

VOL.  r.  26 


402  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

such  exceiient  materials,  and  under  the  most  favourable 
auspices,  thej  commenced  the  experiment  of  governing 
themselves  in  the  far  off  wilderness,  agreeably  to  their 
own  interpretation  of  the  English  constitution,  and  with 
such  modifications  as  were  adapted  to  their  singular  posi- 
tion. From  the  beginning  they  were  free :  And  it  is  the 
glory  of  every  true-hearted  American,  that  his  ancestors 
have  never  been  slaves;  and  that  they  would  never  sub- 
mit for  a  moment  to  oppression  in  any  form.  They 
would  not  be  taxed  even  a  farthing,  without  their  own 
consent.  And  they  boldly  drew  their  swords  to  main- 
tain, and  to  transmit  to  their  children,  the  grand  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  political  rights,  that  taxation  and 
representation  go  together,  and  cannot  be  disjoined, 
while  Magna  Gharta  remains  the  bulwark  and  the  boast 
of  English  liberty. 

Had  our  fathers  been  the  degraded,  sottish,  ignorant, 
pitiable  and  despised  outcasts  of  British  bridewells  and 
dungeons — as  malice  and  envy  have  often  proclaimed — 
our  destiny  had  been  humble  and  wretched  indeed. 
Then  we  might  have  been  slaves — hopeless  and  help- 
less— from  the  prison-ship  of  our  Adam  and  Eve — 
grovelling  and  writhing  beneath  the  tyrant's  scourge, 
and  weeping  tears  of  bitterness  and  anguish,  through 
ages  of  despair,  to  this  dark  and  cheerless  moment. 
But  Heaven  had  otherwise  ordained.  And  the  Uni- 
versity, not  Newgate,  freighted  the  vessels  which  bore 
to  this  then  savage  hemisphere,  the  founders  of  the 
freest  and  greatest  Republic  that  the  Sun  has  ever  shone 
upon.     Shall  we  continue  free  and  great?     Shall  we — 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  403 

will  our  posterity — always  prove  worthy  of  our  and 
their  illustrious  parentage?  Yes  —  while  we  cherish, 
and  honour,  and  generously  sustain  the  university — and 
not  a  day  longer. 

There  is  no  opinion  or  doctrine  more  universally 
recognized — none  more  frequently  or  earnestly  incul- 
cated b}^  the  advocates  of  liberty  everywhere — than 
that  a  purely  republican  form  of  government  cannot 
be  maintained  except  by  a  highly  intelligent  and  vir- 
tuous people.  To  the  very  existence  of  our  Republic 
therefore,  the  university  must  ever  be  indispensable. 
Intelligence  there  may  be  without  virtue.  But  there 
can  be  no  virtue  without  intelligence.  Every  exercise 
of  virtue,  or  every  virtuous  act,  implies  some  degree 
of  knowledge.  The  principles  of  virtue  or  of  ethics 
and  religion  must  be  studied — just  as  geometry  is 
studied.  No  man  can  practise  or  perform  what  he 
does  not  understand,  or  has  not  learned  how  to  perform. 
Intelligent  virtue  or  virtuous  intelligence,  if  I  ma}^  be 
allowed  such  forms  of  expression,  constitutes,  just  in 
proportion  to  its  degree  and  extent,  the  true  dignity 
of  man.  As  citizens  and  as  Christians — as  the  subjects 
of  a  human  and  a  divine  government — as  responsible  to 
society  and  to  posterity  and  to  High  Heaven  for  all  our 
conduct,  for  all  the  good  we  neglect  to  do  as  well  as  for 
all  the  evil  we  commit — we  cannot  be  too  diligent  or 
anxious  in  studying  and  learning  how  to  discharge  the 
various  and  important  duties  incumbent  on  us;  or  in 
ascertaining  in  what  way  or  by  w^hat  means  w^e  may 
accomplish  the  greatest  amount  of  good. 


404-  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

And  hence  I  am  led  to  my  concluding  remarks  upon 
the  general  subject. 

Intellectual  pursuits  are  always  salutary  to  body  and 
mind  and  heart. — The  best  preservative  of  good  morals. 
— The  surest  preventive  of  criminal  and  ruinous  indul- 
gences and  practices. — The  never  failing  source  of  the 
purest  enjoyments.  Study  contributes  to  health  and 
peace  of  mind.  Studious  men  live  the  longest:  and 
they  are  generally  the  happiest  men  in  the  world. 
They  are  harmless  and  inoffensive  members  of  society. 
They  seldom  annoy  anybody,  or  meddle  with  other 
people's  affairs.  They  never  engage  in  mobs  or  riots 
or  popular  tumults  of  an}-  kind.  [I  do  not  here  allude 
to  college  boys — who  are  not  studious — and  who  are 
often  turbulent  and  disorderly  for  that  very  reason.]  I 
speak  of  men,  devoted  to  science  and  literature.  They 
are  peaceful  and  tranquil  in  their  habits.  And  even 
when  they  seem  to  do  no  good,  they  cannot  be  said 
to  do  any  positive  mischief.  Very  rarely,  indeed,  have 
they  been  charged  with  flagitious  enormities  or  con- 
demned for  capital  crimes.  Not  an  individual  of  their 
number  can,  at  this  day,  be  found  in  any  prison  or  peni- 
tenitiary  in  our  own  country — perhaps,  in  no  country. 
In  England,  the  names  of  Eugene  Aram  and  William 
Dodd,  stand  forth  solitary  and  prominent  exceptions  to  a 
general  rule.  And  the  fact,  that  their  fate  has  created 
a  sensation  not  yet  allayed  or  forgotten,  proves  how  un- 
expected and  startling  were  their  guilt  and  ruin.  Edu- 
cated and  learned  men  have  often  been  the  victims  of 
tyranny  and  despotism.     They  have  suffered  every  spe- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  405 

cies  of  cruelty  in  person  and  estate — under  barbarous 
and  sanguinary  codes  of  law  —  administered  by  mer- 
cenarj^  courts  and  packed  juries — by  bills  of  pains  and 
penalties,  and  ex  fost  facto  statutes,  enacted  for  the 
occasion — and  by  that  most  convenient  instrument  of 
legal  ingenuity  and  refinement,  constructive  treascm, 
which  could  consign  to  the  scaffold  or  the  gibbet  the 
most  innocent  and  meritorious  objects  of  a  tyrant's 
jealousy  or  hatred.  They  ever  Imve  been,  as  they  ever 
will  be,  foremost  to  suffer  and  die,  martyrs  to  the  sacred 
cause  of  truth  and  liberty.  For  State  crimes  and  for  reli- 
gicnis  heresies,  they  have  been  often  unrighteously  mur- 
dered, like  Socrates  and  Tully  and  Sir  Thomas  More, 
according  to  forms  of  law^,  or  without  law,  or  in  defiance 
of  all  law.  But  the  world  has  long  since  reversed  the 
sentence  of  their  condemnation.  For  real  crime  however 
— for  the  commission  of  the  mala  in  se — very  few  have 
hitherto,  in  any  age  or  country,  been  condemned  to  death 
or  to  infamous  penalties.  Of  traitors,  our  own  protracted 
revolutionary  war  produced  but  one;  and  he,  assuredly, 
was  not  a  literary  or  college-bred  General.  And  if  a 
single  individual  since,  of  a  liberal  education  and  culti- 
vated mind,  has  been  justly  or  unjustly  chargeable  with 
treasonable  designs;  let  his  lonely  name  be  recorded  as 
the  only  instance  of  the  kind  which  has  occurred  during 
the  half  century  of  our  national  existence.  And  let  it 
serve  as  a  beacon  and  a  warning  against  all  inordinate, 
unhallowed  and  desperate  ambition !  No  university 
catalogue  in  all  our  land,  during  a  period  of  more  than 
two  hundred  years,  has  ever  been  disgraced  by  the  name 


406  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

of  a  single  graduate,  convicted  of  an  infamous  'crime,  or 
doomed  to  an  infamous  or  capital  punishment.  And  it 
is  yet  the  glorious  and  unparalled  distinction  of  our  own 
favoured  Republic,  that  not  a  drop  of  blood  has  ever 
been  judicially  shed  upon  her  virgin  soil  for  a  State 
offence. 

Finally:  Reason  or  understanding  ought  to  be  assi- 
duously cultivated  and  improved,  because  God  has  con- 
ferred it  on  man  for  this  very  purpose.  Litelligence  is 
an  attribute  of  the  Deity ;  and  a  part  therefore  of  that 
divine  image  in  which  man  was  created.  If,  then,  he 
would  be  like  his  Maker  or  seek  to  regain  his  image,  he 
must  daily  grow  in  knowledge  as  well  as  in  holiness;  or 
rather  in  knowledge  in  order  to  holiness.  We  are  no- 
where commanded  in  Scripture  to  get  money  or  to 
hoard  up  riches.  But  we  are  everywhere  commanded  to 
seek  after  knowledge,  to  get  wisdom  and  understanding 
— to  advance  in  every  virtue,  grace  and  moral  excel- 
lence, even  to  the  most  exalted  standard  of  perfection — 
to  become  holy  as  God  is  \\o\y.  Now,  to  be  useful  or 
virtuous  or  holy  one  degree,  implies  one  degree  at  least  of 
knowledge.  And  so  on,  proportionably,  to  any  extent 
whatever.  But  we  are  bound  to  become  as  useful,  virtu- 
ous and  holy  as  possible — to  do  all  the  good  in  our 
power.  And  consequently,  it  is  our  duty  to  study  and 
labour,  w  ith  unremitting  ardour  and  zeal,  to  acquire  every 
species  of  information  which  can  qualify  or  aid  us  to  do 
good.  And  I  have  not  yet  heard  of  any  science,  taught 
in  the  university  or  elsewhere,  which  may  not  enable  its 
possessor  to  be  more  useful;  and  which  therefore  ought 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  407 

not  to  be  learned  when  practicable.  No  man  can  be 
"  growing  in  grace  "  or  becoming  better,  in  the  scriptural 
sense  or  in  an}'  sense,  who  is  not  constantly  advancing 
in  knowledge  and  wisdom.  Nor  will  any  man  evince 
extraordinary  judgment,  candour  or  modesty,  by  boldly 
denouncing  the  study  of  any  science  or  language  with 
which  he  is  himself  unacquainted. 

The  universal  passion  for  wealth,  which  everybody 
cherishes  and  encourages,  is  condemned  in  Scripture  and 
by  sound  philosophy  also,  as  avarice,  covetousness,  idol- 
atry. We  are  exhorted  to  seek  after  "the  true"  and 
more  enduring  riches  —  such  as  will  accompany  us  to 
another  and  a  better  world.  It  certainly  does  seem  pre- 
posterous and  puerile  for  a  man  to  labour  incessantly, 
during  his  whole  life,  to  amass  wealth,  without  enjoying 
it  himself  or  sharing  it  with  others,  without  helping  the 
needy  or  advancing  any  great  interest  of  society,  de- 
riving pleasure  only  from  its  acquisition  and  rapid  accu- 
mulation; and  yet  to  be  conscious,  all  the  while,  that 
death,  in  a  few  brief  years,  will  rob  him  forever  of  his 
uttermost  farthing.  It  will  not  descend  with  him  into 
the  grave.  He  cannot  carry  it  with  him  either  to 
heaven  or  hell.  It  has  absorbed  his  every  faculty  while 
living — closed  up  all  the  avenues  of  knowledge  and 
sympathy  and  benevolence  and  charity  —  rendered  him 
selfish,  hard-hearted,  proud,  overbearing  and  oppresive — 
and  yet  left  him  to  perish,  at  last,  the  veriest  slave  of 
the  meanest  and  most  relentless  tyrant.  But  the  intel- 
lectual treasures  of  the  inquisitive  and  persevering  \dr- 
tuous  student  will  never  be  lost  or  forfeited.     Of  these, 


408  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

no  earthly  power  can  despoil  him.  These  belong  to  the 
soul — to  the  immortal  spirit.  And,  if  rightly  em^Dloyed, 
and  honestly  consecrated  to  their  legitimate  uses,  they 
will  constitute  a  large  measure  of  his  heavenly  inherits 
ance  and  felicity.  And  he  will  be  still  adding  to  his 
intellectual  possessions,  and  be  approximating  to  the 
glorious  likeness  of  his  omniscient  Creator  by  new  and 
continually  increasing  attainments,  while  infinity  re- 
mains to  be  explored  and  exhausted,  and  throughout 
the  illimitable  ages  of  an  ever  beginning,  but  never 
endino;  eternity. 


A  LECTURE 


POPULAR   EDUCATION. 


LECTURE 


POPULAR  EDUCATION. 


If  there  be  any  one  truth,  principle,  maxim  or  doc- 
trine more  universally  recognized  among  our  countrymen, 
at  the  present  day,  than  another,  it  is  this,  namely: 
That  a  free,  republican,  representative  government  can 
be  permanently  sustained  only  by  an  enlightened  and 
virtuous  people.  Without  an  adequate  knowledge  of 
their  rights  and  duties,  the  people  cannot  maintain  the 
one  nor  discharge  the  other.  And  without  moral  in- 
tegrity, they  will  soon  become  indifferent  to  both.  An 
ignorant  and  vicious  community  will  ever  be  the  victim 
or  instrument  or  sport  of  the  ambitious,  the  crafty,  the 
venal,  the  factious,  and  the  desperate.  Neither  the  in- 
telligence, nor  the  wisdom,  nor  the  virtue,  nor  the  pa- 
triotism, nor  the  self-devotion,  nor  the  unwearied  efforts 
of  the  few — supposing  a  few  such  to  exist — can  check 
or  control  or  counteract  the  capricious,  furious,  and  ever 
downward  torrent  of  popular  ignorance  and  corruption. 
In  such  circumstances,  the  people  themselves  will  eagerly 
assist  in  forging  the  chains  which  are  to  bind  them  to 
the  triumphal  car  of  their  own  favourite  chieftain — 

whether  political  demagogue  or  military  conqueror — nor 

4H 


412  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

will  tliey  dream  of  danger  until  their  liberties  shall  have 
been  destroyed  and  their  destiny  sealed  forever. 

We  have  been  so  long  accustomed  to  hear  these  posi- 
tions proclaimed  and  reiterated,  that  we  are  ready  to 
conclude  not  only  that  they  are  everywhere  pei'fectly 
understood,  but  that  they  are  practically  illustrated 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Republic. 
That  we  are  the  freest,  most  enlightened,  most  virtuous, 
prosperous  and  happy  nation  in  the  world,  is  always  as- 
sumed as  a  matter  of  fact — about  which  there  can  be  no 
question  —  and  whereof  we  may  reasonably  glory  and 
boast  on  all  occasions,  and  in  style  and  phrase  the  most 
hyperbolical  and  overweening.  If  all  sorts  of  travelling 
and  book-making  foreigners  do  not  praise  us  to  our 
heart's  content,  we  at  least  make  ample  amends  by  prais- 
ing ourselves.  Self-knowledge  however — agreeably  to 
the  ancient  adage,  "know  thyself" — has  ever  been  justly 
esteemed  the  most  important  kind  of  knowledge,  and, 
indeed,  the  first  step  towards  the  attainment  of  all  other 
useful  knowledge,  so  far  as  individuals  are  concerned. 
And  I  see  no  reason  why  the  same  rule  and  test  should 
not  be  as  applicable  to  nations  as  it  confessedly  is  to  in- 
dividuals. If,  as  a  nation,  we  have  defects,  and  wants, 
and  faults  and  vices,  we  ought  to  know  them,  in  order  to 
ascertain  the  proper  remedy.  Are  there  not  then  symp- 
toms sufficiently  portentous,  and  daily  occurrences  suffi- 
ciently alarming,  to  awaken  the  suspicion  that  our  great 
national  fabric  is  not  constructed  altogether  of  the 
soundest,  purest  and  most  enduring  materials  ?  Are  the 
excellent   constitutions   of  the    Union    and    the    States 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  413 

everywhere  duly  revered,  and  most  sacredly  guarded 
and  obeyed?  Is  the  supremacy  of  the  laws  uniA^ersally 
affirmed  and  maintained?  What  mean  the  popular  riots 
and  mobs  and  tumults  which  are  currently  witnessed  in 
every  corner  and  section  of  our  country?  Do  these  be- 
token no  inherent  malady,  and  no  danger  to  our  institu- 
tions? Are  our  office-bearers  and  office-seekers,  like 
their  predecessors  of  the  good  old  Washington  school, 
the  fairest  specimens  of  genuine  patriotism,  of  political 
integrity,  of  magnanimous  bearing,  and  intrepid  moral 
courage,  that  the  sun  has  ever  shone  upon?  I  leave 
these  and  a  hundred  similar  inquiries,  to  the  sober 
judgment  and  truth-speaking  conscience  of  my  hearers. 
I  feel  assured  that,  in  relation  to  this  w^hole  subject,  they 
will  not  charge  me  with  rhetorical  exaggeration,  nor  set 
me  down  as  an  idle  and  fanatical  alarmist. 

That  we  have  reached  a  crisis  which  demands  extra- 
ordinary attention,  and  which  threatens  disastrous  re- 
sults, will  hardly  be  denied.  Still,  I  do  not  despair  of 
the  Republic.  We  may  experience  all  the  horrors  of 
the  storm  and  tempest,  of  the  hurricane  and  tornado,  of 
the  earthquake  and  volcano;  and  yet  be  preserved  from 
utter  ruin.  While  there  is  life,  there  is  hope.  The 
body  politic  may  be  diseased  and  convulsed,  and  yet 
may  revive  and  flourish  wath  renewed  vigour,  under  the 
judicious  treatment  of  the  skilful  patriotic  physician. 

Tn  many  respects,  our  country  has  hitherto  been  the 
theatre  of  novel  and  untried  experiments.  Our  whole 
system,  indeed,  has  been  from  its  commencement,  re- 
garded by  the  old  world  as  a  mere  experiment.     And 


414  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

not  a  few  of  our  radical  innovations  have  been  de- 
nounced as  rash  and  hazardous  in  the  extreme.  In 
every  stage  of  our  progress,  we  have  been  narrowly 
watched,  and  jealously  scrutinized,  and  invidiously  de- 
preciated, and  often  malignantly  misrepresented.  Ob- 
stacles too,  neither  few  nor  small,  have  been  purposely 
thrown  in  our  way;  and  eveiy  species  of  unkindly  and 
insidious  foreign  influence  has  been  exerted  to  thwart 
and  impede  our  onward  march  towards  national  vigour 
and  maturity.  At  the  close  of  the  great  revolutionary 
struggle  for  national  independence,  we  were  compara- 
tivelj-  a  homogeneous  people — brave,  intelligent,  uncor- 
rupt.  The  sturdy  and  well  trained  descendants  of  the 
pious  pilgrims  at  the  North,  and  of  the  chivalrous  com- 
panions of  the  gallant  Raleigh,  Smith  and  Oglethorpe  at 
the  South,  were  amply  and  equally  qualified  for  the 
arduous  task  of  self-government.  But  they  did  not  fore- 
see the  immense  territorial  expansion  of  the  Republic 
which  a  few  short  years  were  to  realize;  nor  the  un- 
paralled  enlargement  of  the  population  both  from  natu- 
ral increase  and  from  the  sudden  importation  of  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  degraded,  dissolute,  turbulent 
European  paupers.  They  could  not  anticipate  the 
changes,  the  dangers,  the  corruptions,  which  might 
thence  speedily  ensue.  And,  of  course,  they  did  not 
provide  the  necessary  preventive  or  remedy.  They  were 
not  insensible  to  the  benefits  of  education,  both  intellec- 
tual and  moral. — For  they  had  shared  them  liberally. 
And  they  wisely  laboured  to  secure  the  same  advantages 
for  their  children.     We  do  not  find,  in  all  the  writings 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  415 

and  official  documents  of  the  sages  of  that  glorious  and 
heroic  period,  one  heretical  or  discordant  sentiment  upon 
this  vital  subject.  They  inculcated  the  importance  — 
they  urged  the  necessity  of  universal  education  as  their 
only  ground  of  hope  for  the  preservation  of  the  liberties 
and  privileges  which  they  had  periled  life  and  fortune 
and  sacred  honour  to  achieve.  But  they  did  not  dream 
that  the  men  of  that  generation — the  citizens  of  the  ori- 
ginal Atlantic  States — were  in  duty  bound  to  provide 
also  for  the  education  of  half  a  continent  besides.  Let 
us  not  therefore  lightly  arraign  or  rashly  censure  our 
noble  sires,  because  they  did  not  forthwith  devise  the 
ways  and  means  to  plant  schools  and  colleges  and 
churches  throughout  the  wild  forests  and  luxuriant 
prairies  of  the  mighty  west;  nor  commence  the  work 
of  training  the  thousands  of  teachers  about  to  be  re- 
quired to  instruct  the  then  unborn  millions  by  whom 
the  transmontaine  wilderness  was  presently  to  be  sub- 
dued and  cultivated. 

But  however  we  may  dispose  of  such  preliminary 
speculations,  the  simple  fact  is,  that  our  population 
from  two  and  a  half  millions,  has,  within  some  fifty 
years,  been  augmented  to  at  least  fifteen  millions.  The 
means  of  education  have  not  been  furnished  in  a  pro- 
portionate ratio.  Far  from  it.  The  deficiency  is  great 
in  several  even  of  the  oldest  States,  and  much  greater  in 
all  the  new  ones.  True,  the  public  mind  is  beginning  to 
be  alive  to  this  enormous  deficiency.  The  actual  condi- 
tion of  the  people  is  gradually  becoming  known.  It  is 
already  proclaimed  in  our  public  journals :  "  That  there 


416  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

are  a  million  and  a  half  of  children  at  least  who  have 
no  teacher;  that  thirty  thousand  schoolmasters  are 
needed  at  this  moment,  and  that  an  additional  annual 
supply  of  four  thousand  will  be  needed  for  the  regular 
increase  of  our  population."  If  this  statement  be  even 
an  approximation  towards  the  truth,  it  is  enough  to  ap- 
pal the  heart  of  the  boldest  and  most  sanguine  philan- 
throphist. 

I  do  not  repose  implicit  faith  in  the  statistics  of  igno- 
rance, or  intemperance,  or  profligacy,  or  irreligion,  which 
have  been  of  late  so  officiously  paraded  before  the  public, 
in  anniversary  speeches  and  reports,  in  pamphlets  and 
periodicals,  for  the  benevolent  purpose  of  awakening  the 
sympathy  and  commanding  the  purses  of  the  rich. 
Still,  it  must  be  admitted,  there  is  a  vast  amount  of 
deplorable  ignorance  and  reckless  depravity  among  our 
people.  Of  this  fact,  every  man  must  be  convinced,  who 
wall  trust  to  the  evidence  of  his  own  senses  wdthin  the 
range  of  his  daily  observation, — however  limited  that 
may  be.  Let  him  investigate  the  moral  character  and 
condition  of  his  own  county,  city,  town,  village  or  neigh- 
bourhood; and  he  will  be  no  longer  incredulous  on  this 
score.  He  need  hardly  read  over  the  delectable  catalogue 
of  absurdities  and  fooleries  and  quackery  and  frauds  and 
abominations  inflicted  and  perpetrated  by  Mormonism 
and  Shakerism  and  Oicenism  and  Agrarianism  and 
Thompsonism  and  Partyism  and  LyncMsm  and  Aholitum- 
ism  and  Perfectionism  and  Fanaticism  and  all  sorts  of 
political  and  religious  nUraism; — which  everywhere  find 
ample  scope  and  encouragement,  and  oftentimes  reap  most 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  417 

golden  harvests  from  the  hopes  or  fears  or  excited  pas- 
sions of  a  besotted  and  uninstructed  people.  These  and 
other  similar  extravagances  and  monstrosities  prove  in- 
deed the  existence  of  much  shrewdness  and  cmming  and 
misdirected  intelligence  on  the  one  hand,  as  they  do  of  a 
vastly  larger  amount  of  gross  ignorance  and  invincible 
stolidity  on  the  other.  The  first  constituting  the  essen- 
tial attributes  of  the  accomplished  knave  and  successful 
impostor,  and  the  latter  supplying  in  abundance  the 
necessary  dupes  and  victims  to  be  operated  upon  and 
mystified  at  pleasure  by  the  former.  But  an  observer 
may  leave  out  of  view  or  pass  over  all  this,  if  he  please, 
and  yet  witness  enough  to  be  satisfied  that  the  land  is 
teeming  with  a  wild  luxuriant  growth  of  untamed,  un- 
tutored, and  licentious  mobocracy. 

All  this  is  so  obvious  and  palpable,  that  I  feel  con- 
scious of  having  uttered  the  merest  truisms  in  the  hear- 
ing of  every  reflecting  person  present.  Be  it  so:  then 
are  we  prepared  to  grapple  with  the  real  difficulties  of 
the  case.  A  perfectly  equitable  repuhlican  government — 
such  as  our  own  claims  to  he — can  he  maintained  only  hy 
an  intelligent  and  virtivous  people.  Granted  by  you  all. 
A  republican  government  may  be  as  unjust,  as  arbitrary, 
as  oppressive  and  despotic  as  any  absolute  monarchy 
upon  the  earth.  Everything  depends  on  the  character 
of  the  sovereign  in  either  case.  And  as  in  a  republic 
the  people  are  sovereign,  we  must  rely  exclusively^  upon 
the  wisdom  and  honesty  of  the  people  for  good  laws  and 
faithful  magistrates.  Multitudes  of  our  people  are 
neither   intelligent   nor  virtuous: — granted.     This   fact 


418  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

bodes  evil  to  the  Republic — granted  again.  The  only 
prospective  remedy  or  curative  process,  is  the  suitable 
education  of  the  young  and  rising  generation,  and  of 
each  future  generation : — granted,  once  more.  How  are 
all  the  children  of  the  Republic  to  be  educated? — By 
the  establishment  of  good  common  schools  all  over  the 
land,  say  our  statesmen  and  politicians :  and  the  people 
respond,  amen !  Very  good.  This  then  is  the  all- 
sufficient  and  acknowledged  panacea.  I  shall  not  stop 
now  to  analyze  or  to  controvert  its  claims  to  our  confi- 
dence. I  concede,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  the  perfect 
adequateness  of  the  system  recommended.  I  assume 
that  the  universal  diffusion  of  knowledge,  by  the  agency 
of  COMMON  SCHOOLS,  wiU  effect  the  desired  reforma- 
tion, and  insure  peace  and  prosperity  to  the  Repubhc  for- 
ever. 

The  question  recurs :  How  are  such  schools  to  be  es- 
tablished and  maintained  in  sufficient  numbers  to  meet 
the  demand?  or  is  there  no  other  possible  mode  of 
reaching  the  same  end?  As  to  the  first  inquiry,  vre  have 
the  example  and  experience  of  a  few  of  our  own  States 
and  of  several  European  kingdoms,  which  may  aid  and 
guide  us  in  our  researches  and  speculations.  New  York, 
New  England,  Virginia,  have  tried  the  common  school 
system  under  divei^  forms  and  regulations,  and  with 
various  success.  It  will  suffice,  for  our  present  purpose, 
to  notice  briefly  three  of  the  systems  referred  to;  and 
which  indeed,  with  slight  modifications,  comprise  the 
whole  which  have  been  thoroughly  tested  in  our  own 
country.     These  may  be  distinguished  and  described  as 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  419 

the  systems,  1st.  of  Connecticut,  2d.  of  Massachusetts, 
and  3d.  of  New  York. 

In  these  several  States,  there  is  in  one  respect,  a 
coincidence  of  plan:  That  is,  the  Legislature  has  de- 
clared that  all  youth  shall  be  educated  —  the  children 
of  the  poor  as  well  as  of  the  rich.  The  difference 
lies  in  the  collection  and  distribution  of  the  funds. 
In  these  States,  legislative  aid  is  generally  afforded 
only  in  providing  teachers.  Books  are  furnished  by 
parents.  The  schoolhouse  is  erected  by  tax,  imposed 
at  a  legal  meeting  of  the  district;  and  all  other  inci- 
dental expenses  are  defrayed  either  by  a  direct  tax  or 
by  voluntary  subscription. 

The  means  of  paying  teachers  are  derived  in  Con- 
necticut from  a  fund:  in  Massachusetts  from  taxa- 
tion: and  in  New  York,  from  taxation  and  a  fund 
united. 

1.  Connecticut  has  a  productive  school-fund  of  about 
two  millions  of  dollars.  The  dividends  annually  made 
to  the  schools,  average  about  one  dollar  to  each  child 
between  the  ages  of  four  and  sixteen.  And  the  acknow- 
ledged result  of  the  experiment  is,  that  the  children  of 
Connecticut  are  not  so  well  educated  now  as  they  were 
previously  to  1795 — when  the  present  system  went  into 
operation.  The  public  schools  in  Connecticut  are  noto- 
riously failures.  And  wherever  a  good  school  in  that 
State  can  be  found,  it  is  altogether  supported  by  private 
associations.  The  Connecticut  system  has  scarcely  an 
intelligent  advocate  at  home,  and  none  elsewhere.  It 
aims  at  too  much,  and  therefore  accomplishes  little  or 


420  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

nothing.  It  cannot  afford  a  reasonable  compensation 
for  the  services  of  half  the  number  of  competent  in- 
structors demanded  by  the  population.  And  hence, 
either  not  more  than  half  the  requisite  number  can 
be  employed,  or,  what  is  worse,  the  schools  must  be 
committed  to  the  most  illiterate,  indolent  and  worthless 
of  the  whole  tribe  of  pedagogues :  who  are  content  to 
doze  away  their  life  for  ten  dollars  per  month  rather 
than  labour  in  the  field  or  shop  for  twenty.  Besides, 
while  the  people  depend  absolutely  and  exclusively  on 
the  great  State  fund  for  the  adequate  support  of  their 
schools,  they  very  naturally  become  indifierent  to  the 
whole  concern.  They  feel  no  motive  or  stimulus  for 
individual  eflbrt  and  enterprise.  They  blindly  and 
heedlessly,  and  }et  confidently,  look  to  the  govern- 
ment for  the  schooling  of  their  children  —  as  they  do 
to  Providence  for  air  and  water — while  they  rarely 
reflect  on  the  importance  of  the  one  or  the  other.  Men 
seldom  value  what  costs  them  nothing.  x\  public  fund 
for  the  instruction  of  youth  in  common  schools,  is  of  no 
comparative  worth,  merely  as  a  means  of  relieving  want. 
Whether  it  can  be  made  to  subserve  a  nobler  end,  we 
shall  inquire  hereafter.  The  good  people  of  Connec- 
ticut, as  we  learn  from  published  official  documents, 
actually  expended  about  an  equal  sum  before  their 
school-fund  existed, — and  upon  half  the  present  amount 
of  population.  And  yet  they  never  murmured  at  this 
expenditure  as  burdensome  or  excessive. 

Tennessee  does  not  possess,  and  cannot  hope  soon  to 
accumulate  such  a  fund :  and  if  she  could,  the  Connecti- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  421 

cut  system  ought  not  to  be  thought  of  by  her  judicious 
and  patriotic  sages. 

2.  In  Massachusetts,  taxafion  is  the  sole  reliance  of 
common  schools.  What  maj^  be  feasible  and  safe  for 
her,  might  be  hazardous  for  other  States,  where  the 
people  have  not  inherited  the  system  of  taxation,  and 
where  public  sentiment  attaches  less  value  to  education. 
It  obtains  however  in  New  Hampshire,  Vermont  and 
Maine.  In  all  these  States  it  works  well :  and  appears 
to  answer  every  desirable  end  contemplated  by  the  most 
zealous  friends  of  common  schools.  The  mode  of  raising 
the  pecuniary  means  is  of  little  consequence,  provided 
the  2^eople  approve  it.  That  the  plan  succeeds,  and  that 
the  people  are  satisfied,  in  the  States  just  mentioned, 
cannot  be  doubted. 

The  late  Governor  Bell  of  New  Hampshire,  says: 
"The  eflect  of  this  system  has  been  very  salutary. 
Scarcely  a  native  citizen  under  forty  years  of  age,  of 
either  sex,  can  be  found  who  has  not  been  taught  to 
read  and  write  their  native  language.  It  has  elevated 
the  character  of  our  population,  in  point  of  intelligence 
and  correct  moral  habits." 

A  distinguished  individual  in  Vermont  thus  writes: 
"  However  defective  our  laws  on  this  subject  may  appear 
to  those  who  are  abroad,  the  beneficial  effects  that  have 
resulted  cannot  be  questioned.  Very  few  men  or  women 
can  be  found  in  this  State,  natives  of  the  State,  who  can- 
not read  and  write,  and  employ  figures  for  common  pur- 
poses." 

Gov.  Lincoln  of  Massachusetts  says:   "The  practical 


422  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

operation  of  the  laws  has  been  to  secure  in  every  district 
and  village  of  the  Commmiicealth,  the  means  of  regular 
instruction  to  children  in  the  elementary  branches  of 
learning,  and  where  there  was  wealth  and  population 
to  justify  the  occasion,  the  establishment  and  support 
of  schools  of  competent  character  to  prepare  youth  for 
admission  to  college,  or  to  enter  upon  the  active  business 
of  life.  Certain  it  is,  that  there  has  never  been  any 
want  of  interest  manifested  here,  either  in  raising  a 
sufficient  amount  of  money,  or  in  attending  to  its  most 
useful  application." 

The  late  Governor  Paris,  of  Maine,  observes:  "Tlie 
sum  required  by  law  to  be  raised  in  each  town,  is  equal 
to  forty  cents  for  each  inhabitant  the  town  contains. 
The  penalty  for  neglect  is  a  fine  of  not  less  than  twiee, 
nor  more  than  four  times  the  amount  of  the  failure 
or  deficiency.  There  is  not  an  individual  in  any  town 
within  the  limits  of  the  State,  who  may  not  give  his 
children  a  good  English  education.  In  this  mode  the 
school-fund  is  annually  collected  from  the  pockets  of 
the  citizens;  and  is  paid  with  more  cheerfulness  than 
any  other  tax  to  which  they  are  liable.  The  effect 
of  this  system,  is  an  intelligent  and  enlightened  popu- 
lation, not  confined  merely  to  the  large  towns,  or  their 
vicinity,  but  spread  throughout  the  State." 

While  I  take  it  for  granted  that  the  good  people  of 
Tennessee  will  not  submit  to  taxation  for  the  purpose  of 
educating  their  children;  I  must  be  permitted  to  add, 
that,  if  ever  a  tax  should  be  levied  on  the  whole  pro- 
perty of  a  community  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  citizens; 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  423 

the  most  reasonable,  the  most  equitable,  and  the  most 
useful,  both  in  its  immediate  and  ultimate  results,  would 
be  a  tax  for  this  specific  object.  No  other  object,  indeed, 
aimed  at  by  any  species  of  taxation,  is,  by  many  degrees, 
comparable  in  importance  to  this.  Cannot  the  poor  man 
be  made  to  discern  and  to  appreciate  the  boon  which  he 
would  receive  from  the  rich,  when  they  should  provide 
the  means  of  tuition  for  his  children?  Cannot  the  rich 
comprehend  the  advantages  which  would  redound  to 
themselves,  as  well  as  to  the  whole  population,  if  they 
would  consent  to  contribute  their  mite  towards  the 
common  education  of  all  our  youth,  instead  of  being 
reduced  to  the  necessity  of  paying  ten-fold  more  to 
support  thousands  of  idle  paupers,  vagabonds  and 
criminals — by  poor  rates — in  poor  houses — or  in  jails 
and  penitentiaries?  From  the  latter  burden,  which 
is  daily  augmenting,  they  can  never  be  relieved,  except 
by  the  thorough  instruction  and  discipline  of  the  young 
and  rising  generation.  A  little  skill  in  vulgar  arithmetic 
— in  the  rule  of  Loss  and  Gain — to  say  nothing  of  ethics 
or  political  economy — will  enable  them  to  calculate  to 
which  alternative  their  own  pecuniary  interest  should 
inclme  them.  Moreover,  the  existing  system  of  support- 
ing the  poor,  and  of  punishing  or  reforming  the  criminal, 
is  not  only  the  most  expensive  that  can  well  be  devised : 
it  is  utterly  nugatory  in  its  operation  and  effects:  it  is 
a  positive  encouragement  to  pauperism  and  profligacy. 
The  philanthropists  and  statesmen  of  England,  where 
this  preposterous  and  suicidal  system  has  had  ample 
scope  for  some  three  centuries  past,  pronounce  it  absurd, 


424  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

inefficient,  and  ruinous  alike  to  both  rich  and  poor.  Let 
experience  teach  us  wisdom.  Let  the  axe  be  hiid  at  the 
root  of  the  evil.  Let  ignorant  children  be  duly  in- 
structed j  and  we  shall  be  rid  of  ignorant  thieves  and 
beggars.  The  schoolhouse  and  the  schoolmaster  will 
be  found  cheaper  than  the  prison,  the  sheriff,  and  the 
judge. 

Again,  if  the  poor  would  examine  their  own  relative 
position  in  society,  and  the  proportion  of  the  public 
burdens  which  they  actually  sustain,  they  might  possi- 
bly discover  some  ground  of  complaint:  and  also  that 
they  are  in  fact  taxed  already  to  an  amount  which,  if 
wisely  appropriated  to  the  object,  would  be  amply  suffi- 
cient to  educate  their  own  children.  As  mUitla  men, 
they  are  taxed  equally  with  the  rich.  Whether  they 
regard  this  as  a  privilege  or  an  imposition,  I  have  never 
inquired.  The  law  however  commands  every  poor  man, 
between  the  ages  of  18  and  45,  to  attend  militia  musters 
four  days  in  the  year.  That  is,  virtually,  to  pay  four 
dollars  cash,  as  a  direct  tax  towards  this  one  object  of 
common  defence.  His  incidental  expenses  cannot  be 
less  than  four  dollars  more.  Here  then  are  eight 
dollars,  positive  tax,  demanded  from  every  poor  man 
of  a  certain  age,  annually.  Nor  is  this  all.  If  we  take 
into  the  account  the  time  wasted  at  military  elections — 
the  money  expended  by  officers  and  men  in  sundry  ways 
which  it  is  needless  to  specify — the  average  annual  ex- 
penditure per  man,  rich  and  poor,  officer  and  private, 
may  be  fairly  computed  at  ten  dollars.  I  do  not  know 
the  number  of  our  militia :  But  set  them  down  at  only 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  425 

50,000 ;  and  here  is  a  sum  of  |500,000,  cheerfully  paid 
by  our  tax-loathing  people  every  year : — a  sum  which,  if 
judiciously  expended,  would  make  every  cottage  smile 
with  intelligence,  peace,  comfort  and  independence. 
Will  the  poor — will  the  rich — passively  endure  all  this 
without  a  murmur?  and  yet  refuse  to  tax  themselves  for 
precisel}^  the  noblest  end  at  which  even  the  most  selfish 
parental  ambition  ought  to  aspire? 

The  militia  system  in  general  vogue  after  all  is 
confessedly  a  nuisance  to  the  community.  It  does  no 
good.  It  has  no  tendency  to  form  soldiers.  Such  is 
the  opinion  of  every  real  military  officer  in  the  Union. 
Several  of  the  States  have  already  abolished  the  whole 
system:  and  others  are  in  a  fair  way  to  follow  their 
example.  It  is  admitted  that  neither  military  tactics, 
nor  military  principles  or  habits  are  ever  learned  or 
acquired  on  the  militia  parade  ground.  But  if  we 
must  pay  for  a  whistle — though  at  the  rate  of  half  a 
million  per  year — let  us  also  be  willing  to  pay  some- 
thing to  insure  to  posterity  an  enhghtened,  virtuous, 
free,  and  happy  Commonwealth. 

3.  In  New  York,  a  mixed  system  obtains.  She  has 
combined  both  the  plans  already  described.  And  the 
happy  effects  of  her  system,  directed,  as  it  is,  by  an  able 
and  laborious  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  are 
fully  illustrated  in  the  annual  Reports  made  to  the 
Legislature  on  the  subject. 

The  State  possesses  a  productive  general  school-fund 
of  nearlv  two  millions  of  dollars — besides  lands  held  for 


426  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

the  same  purpose — and  also  local  funds  in  several  of  the 
counties. 

The  interest  of  the  general  fund,  (about  ^100,000)  is 
annually  distributed  among  the  School  Districts  simply 
as  an  incentive  to  self-taxation  and  voluntary  contri- 
bution. It  does  not  amount,  at  the  utmost,  to  more 
than  one-sixth  of  the  sum  annually  paid  to  teachers 
alone:  and  to  not  more  than  one-tenth  of  the  whole 
sum  actually  expended  by  the  people  in  support  of 
their  schools.  The  statesmen  of  New  York  have 
wisely  adapted  their  school-policy  to  the  known  selfish- 
ness of  human  nature.  They  hold  out  a  motive  to  self- 
exertion  and  liberality  which  is  rarely  resisted.  They 
say  to  a  school  district :  we  will  give  you.  from  the  State 
fund  so  much — say  ^100, — upon  the  condition  that  3'ou 
raise  by  tax  on  your  property  an  equal  sum  towards 
paying  your  teacher:  and  that  you  provide  a  school- 
house  and  defray  all  other  contingent  charges  by  volun- 
tary contribution.  It  is  not  known  that  a  single  district 
has  forfeited  its  right  to  participate  in  the  public  bounty 
by  a  failure  to  comply  with  the  conditions  prescribed. 

The  peculiar  features  and  pre-eminent  advantages 
of  the  New  York  system  are  so  well  understood  and 
so  universally  acknowledged,  that  I  deem  it  unnecessary 
to  enter  into  further  details.  These  have  been  presented 
to  the  public,  from  time  to  time,  in  nearly  all  our  peri- 
odical journals  and  newspapers;  and  of  course,  must  be 
familiar  to  my  hearers. 

"  Schwartz,  one  of  the  most  eminent  writers  on  educa- 
tion in  Germany,  observes,  in  his  History  of  Education, 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  427 

that  the  St.ate  of  New  York  has  the  greatest  number  of 
children  in  its  schools  in  proportion  to  the  whole  popu- 
lation, of  any  country  he  has  found."  Whether,  in  this 
respect  or  in  any  other,  New  York  excels  Massachusetts, 
I  have  not  the  means  of  accurately  determining. 

But  supposing  a  school-fund  to  be  provided  or  con- 
templated, there  can  be  no  question  about  the  decided 
superiority  of  the  New  York  system  of  disbursement 
over  every  other  which  has  been  subjected  to  the  test 
of  experience  in  any  part  of  our  country.  If  Tennes- 
see therefore  were  already  in  possession  of  such  a  fund, 
or  should  she  ever  be  so  fortunate  as  to  procure  one, 
either  from  her  own  resources  or  from  the  public  lands 
of  the  national  government,  she  will  not  hesitate,  it  is 
presumed,  to  follow  the  salutary  and  successful  example 
of  New  York. 

Still,  rehus  extantihus,  what  is  to  be  done?  We  will 
not  tax  ourselves:  and  a  school-fund  we  have  not.  It 
would  require  the  saving  of  years  to  accumulate  one 
sufficiently  large  to  be  of  any  avail,  even  for  distribu- 
tion upon  the  New  York  plan,  in  the  shape  of  rewards 
and  premiums  to  self-taxation.  In  the  mean  time,  seve- 
ral hundred  thousands  of  our  children  may  grow  up 
in  ignorance.  Until  a  new  generation  shall  arise  so 
utterly  ignorant  and  barbarous  as  to  despise  learning, 
and  be  ready  to  vote  all  schools  a  nuisance,  and  the 
growing  school-fund  good  prize  money  to  be  shared 
among  themselves  or  their  loving  representatives. 

Must  we  then  wait:  or  must  we  despair?  Neither 
the  one  nor  the  other.       I  doubt  the  utility — (always 


428  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

excepting  the  New  York  system)  certainly  the  neces- 
sity  of  any  school-fund  whatever.      Common    educar 

tion,  as  we  have  seen,  was  on  a  better  footing  in  Connec- 
ticut fifty  or  a  hundred  years  ago  than  at  this  moment. 
In  the  Southern  States,  every  project  of  the  kind  has 
failed.  Mr.  Jefferson  declared  in  1822,  that  the  plan  of 
primary  schools  in  Virginia  had  proved  completely  abor- 
tive, and  must  be  shortly  abandoned :  "  after  costing  us 
(he  adds)  to  this  day  [1822]  one  hundred  and  eighty 
thousand  dollars,  and  yet  to  cost  us  forty-five  thousand 
dollars  a  year  more  until  it  shall  be  discontinued :  and 
if  a  single  boy  has  received  the  elements  of  common 
education,  it  must  be  in  some  part  of  the  country  not 
known  to  me.  Experience  has  but  too  fully  confirmed 
the  early  predictions  of  its  fiite." 

New  York  has  been  fortunate  in  accumulating  an 
ample  fund  wherewith  to  incite  the  people  to  help 
themselves.  Her  policy  in  regard  to  common  schools, 
academies,  colleges,  and  other  scientific  and  professional 
institutions — in  regard  to  roads,  canals,  penitentiaries, 
and  houses  of  refuge  for  juvenile  delinquents — is  worthy 
of  all  praise  and  of  general  imitation.  In  all  these  re- 
spects, she  has  gone  far  ahead  of  most  of  her  sister  re- 
publics. 

But  the  question  recurs :  What  can  ive  do  ?  I  answer : 
Present  a  motive  sufficiently  strong  to  induce  the  people 
to  educate  themselves,  or  their  children,  by  their  own 
industry.  I  mean  not  now  to  designate  the  precise 
motive  which  ought  to  be  thus  addressed  to  the  people. 
I  will  merely  suggest  two  or  three  as  illustrative  of  the 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  429 

general  principle — which  may  however  be  practically 
applied  in  a  great  variety  of  ways.  It  is  evident  that 
some  individuals,  both  rich  and  poor,  do  educate  their 
children,  without  any  aid  or  impulse  from  the  govern- 
ment. They,  of  course,  have  a  motive  of  some  kind 
Avhich  urges  them  to  this  duty.  Well-educated  parents, 
for  example,  be  their  circumstances  what  they  may, 
seldom  fail  to  educate  their  children.  They  can  appre- 
ciate the  value  and  importance  of  an  education:  and 
with  them,  this  is  a  sufficient  motive.  This  is,  in  fact, 
the  operating  principle  and  mainspring  of  the  excellent 
Massachusetts  system.  Were  all  our  people  thus  en- 
lightened, no  other  motive  would  be  wanting  to  insure 
the  universal  education  of  their  children.  But  until 
this  shall  be  our  happy  lot,  some  motive  must  be  sought 
which  will  come  home  to  the  interests  and  feelings  and 
ambition  of  the  great  mass  even  of  an  illiterate  commu- 
nity. Such  a  motive  is  money.  New  York  has  saga- 
ciously addressed  this  motive  to  her  population;  and 
her  object  is  achieved.  She  hires  her  citizens,  or  tempts 
them  by  a  trifling  gratuity,  to  do  for  their  children  what 
they  could  just  as  easily  accomplish  without  it.  For  one 
dollar  in  ten  is  too  paltry  a  sum  to  be  thought  of  as  re- 
lief or  assistance.  Whether  this  is  the  hest  motive  that 
could  have  been  proposed,  is  of  no  consequence  to  in- 
quire. As  we,  however,  cannot  at  present  hold  out  this 
golden  motive,  it  is  worth  while  to  ascertain  whether 
some  other  will  not  answer  quite  as  well. 

In  Austria — for  even  there  the  schoolmaster  is  abroad, 
and  his  magic  influence  will  ere  long  be  acknowledged 


430  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

by  the  proudest  despotism  in  Europe  —  no  person  is 
allowed  to  marry  who  cannot  read,  write,  and  cipher. 
Suppose  we  had  such  a  law  in  Tennessee.  In  less  than 
a  year,  every  marriageable  bachelor  and  maiden  in  the 
State  would  be  able  to  read  and  write,  at  least.  And 
all  the  children  in  the  country,  of  twelve  years  old 
and  upwards,  would  be  striving  to  acquire  the  requisite 
qualifications  for  matrimony  —  for  every  boy  and  girl 
means  to  be  married.  Thus  then,  without  the  expendi- 
ture of  a  cent  of  public  money,  or  the  imposition  of  any 
tax  whatever,  or  the  delay  of  another  year,  we  might 
behold  the  entire  rising  generation  stimulated  to  ex- 
ertion and  enterprise,  which  would  insure  them  all 
the  advantages  of  a  common  school  education — be 
the  amount  of  it  whatever  the  Legislature  should  be 
pleased  to  enjoin.  How  the  people  could  command 
the  means  and  facilities  for  self-instruction,  will  be 
explained  hereafter.  My  object  now  is  to  submit  mo- 
tives to  induce  the  desire  and  the  effort.  That  the  one 
just  named  would  prove  effectual,  I  have  no  doubt. 
And  that  it  would  promote  the  grand  cause  of  matri- 
mony itself,  (a  consideration  by  no  means  to  be  disre- 
garded in  a  new  country,)  may  be  assumed;  since 
this  would  be  viewed  as  the  ultimate  aim  and  reward 
of  every  lad  and  spinster  in  seeking  an  education.  Nor 
would  the  end  ever  be  lost  sight  of  till  it  should  be  se- 
cured. The  Avhole  race  of  old  bachelors  would  sj^eedily 
evanish  from  our  smiling  and  happy  land :  and  our  fiiir 
daughters  would  no  longer  be  doomed  to  the  pains 
and  penalties  of  "single  blessedness."     Every  American 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  431 

statesman  ought,  in  spite  of  Maltlius  and  the  Pope,  to  be 
the  champion  of  matrimony — while  a  quarter  section  of 
our  virgin  soil  remains  uncultivated.  Education  and 
matrimony  would  thus  go  hand  in  hand:  they  would 
mutually  act  and  re-act  upon  each  other:  and  all  the 
benefits  that  mlijld  result  from  so  wise  and  opportune 
a  measure,  Avould  doubtless  far  transcend  the  calcula- 
tions of  the  most  sanguine  utilitarian  dogmatists  of 
either  hemisphere.  On  this  subject,  '-the  American 
figure  of  Anticipation,"  as  the  English  critics  invidi- 
ously style  it,  might  have  free  scope,  without  danger 
of  running  into  hyperbole. 

To  this  sage  scheme,  I  see  no  very  cogent  objection; 
provided  it  be  within  the  constitutional  limits  of  legisla- 
tion. If  not,  the  remedy  is  with  the  people.  They, 
like  the  British  Parliament,  are  omnipotent.  They  can 
create  or  demolish,  alter  or  amend,  constitutions  at 
pleasure.  They  can  mend  a  bad,  as  well  as  spoil  a  good 
one.  And  if  they  do  not  elect  to  foster  popular  educa- 
tion in  this  Austrian  fashion,  they  may  authorize  some 
other  mode  of  reaching  the  same  end. 

For  example — and  I  am  merely  giving  examples  or 
specimens  of  what  is  practicable ;  leaving,  as  becomes  a 
loyal  subject,  the  final  choice  to  the  wisdom  of  the  com- 
mon sovereign : — let  it  be  ordained  by  law  or  by  the  next 
amended  Constitution,  that,  after  a  certain  specified  day, 
no  man  shall  be  eligible  to  ofiice  or  have  the  privilege 
of  voting  at  elections,  who  cannot  read  and  write. 
This,  too,  would  be  a  sufficient  motive.  And,  in  a  few 
years,  scarcely  a  man  of  twenty-one  years  old  and  up- 


432  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

wards,  could  be  found  in  the  State  incajDable  of  reading 
and  writing.  Such  a  rule  would  be  no  hardship.  Qua- 
lifications for  office  and  for  the  elective  franchise,  of 
some  kind,  are  universally  required  by  law.  Thus,  a 
certain  age  has  always  been  prescribed  as  a  qualification. 
This  is  purely  arbitrary — as  many  an  individual  could 
vote  with  more  discretion  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  than 
others  at  the  age  of  thirty.  And  yet  it  is  necessary 
that  there  should  be  a  known  invariable  rule  on  the 
subject.  Property  qualifications  are  always  invidious, 
unequal,  and  utterly  inapplicable  as  a  test  of  judgment, 
honesty,  or  patriotism.  But  the  ability  to  read  and 
write,  is  a  qualification  directly  to  the  point.  It  is  in- 
dispensable to  the  attainment  of  any  correct  information 
in  regard  to  our  government.  Constitution,  jurisprudence, 
public  measures,  and  public  men.  Without  it,  voters  are 
but  mere  machines,  to  be  impelled  by  extraneous  force — 
by  the  arts,  intrigue,  flattery  and  misrepresentations  of 
demagogues.  They  are,  in  general,  no  better  qualified 
to  give  their  sufirages  at  an  election  than  so  many  in- 
fants. I  say,  in  general,  because  there  have  been  shrewd 
well-informed  men  who  could  not  even  read.  Some  such 
there  doubtless  are  now,  and  ever  will  be.  They  are 
exceptions  however  to  a  great  law  of  civilized  human 
nature. 

It  is  absurd  to  talk  of  their  rights  to  a  people  who 
cannot  comprehend  them.  Savages  and  slaves  are 
always  ignorant :  for  none  but  grossly  ignorant  men 
will  remain  in  the  savage  state  or  submit  to  slavery. 
And  ignorant  men  are  of  necessity  slaves  iii  the  worst 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  433 

sense.  They  are  the  dupes  and  passive  instruments  of 
the  more  crafty  and  knowing. 

All  this  may  seem  harsh  and  anti-republican.  It  is 
nevertheless  the  doctrine  of  our  Franklins  and  Washing- 
tons  and  Jeflfersons  and  Jays  and  Marshalls,  and  of 
every  honest  enlightened  republican  in  the  world.  They 
all  declare  that  there  can  be  no  civil  liberty — no  reli- 
gious liberty — no  approach  to  self-government — except 
where  the  people  are  thoroughly  instructed :  so  as  to  be 
capable  of  judging  correctly  and  independently  of  public 
men  and  of  political  measures.  They  all  j^oint  to  popular 
ignorance  as  the  chief,  indeed  the  only,  source  of  their 
apprehension  and  despondency  in  regard  to  the  stability 
of  our  admirable  institutions,  and  the  future  destinies  of 
this  glorious  Republic.  Examine  their  solemn,  deliberate, 
recorded  opinions — their  last  legacies  of  patriotic  affec- 
tion— full  of  counsel  and  warning  upon  this  very  subject 
— exhorting  and  entreating  their  countrymen,  as  they 
value  liberty,  and  w^ould  transmit  it  unimpaired  to  pos- 
terity, to  seek  after  knowledge  above  all  things,  and  to 
diffuse  its  celestial  light  over  every  dark  corner  of  the 
land.  Listen  to  the  voice  of  the  living  veteran,  who  has 
survived  the  wars  and  struggles  and  perils  to  wdiich  his 
country  has  been  exposed  since  the  morning  of  her  inde- 
pendence, and  3'ou  hear  the  same  counsel  and  the  same 
warning. 

Desperate  diseases  demand  desperate  remedies.  But. 
in  this  case,  there  is  nothing  harsh  or  desperate.  It  is 
proposed  to  elevate  all  our  citizens  to  the  rank  of  free- 


434  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

men. — To  induce  them,  for  their  own  good,  to  qualify 
themselves  to  be  in  fact,  what  they  claun  to  be  in  name, 
To  emancipate  their  minds  from  the  thraldom  of  ig- 
norance, and  to  render  them  fit  to  share  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people  with  the  people.  Will  they  demur  at  such 
a  measure?  What  wise  father,  if  he  foresaw  that  he 
should  leave  his  children  penniless,  friendless,  and  desti- 
tute of  instruction,  would  not  rejoice  on  his  death-bed  in 
the  assurance  that  his  country  had  furnished  a  motive  to 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  which  could  not  fail  to  in- 
sure its  ultimate  attainment?  Why  should  stature,  or 
age,  or  colour,  entitle  the  human  animal  to  privileges  or 
functions  which  he  can  neither  appreciate  nor  fulfil? 
Would  the  condition  of  a  child  be  improved,  or  his  hap- 
piness be  promoted,  by  freeing  him  from  parental  control 
and  permitting  him  to  exercise  all  the  rights  of  a  citi- 
zen? Is  the  untaught  white  man  any  better,  any  wiser, 
any  more  noble  or  trustworthy,  than  the  untaught  Afri- 
can or  Indian?  Wherever  important  rights  are  vested 
or  responsible  trust  confided,  iliere  ought  to  be  found 
correspondent  qualifications — adequate  intelligence,  in- 
tegrity, and  judgment. 

Do  I  expect  then,  that  Tennessee  will  ever  sanction 
the  principle,  that  the  elective  franchise  should  be  asso- 
ciated with  intellectual  cultivation,  or  be  exercised  by 
those  only  who  have  been,  or  wdio  shall  be,  educated  to 
a  certain  specified  extent?  Assuredly  not.  I  cherish 
no  such  visionary  fancy.  I  believe  it,  indeed,  the  very 
best  measure  that  can  be  suggested  in  order  to  secure 
tlie  great  object  of  universal  education — and  therefore  I 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  435 

despair  of  its  adoption.  The  people  will  be  told  that  it 
is  anti-republican.  And  yet,  by  the  new  Constitution  of 
Republican  Colombia  it  is  ordained  that,  after  1840,  no 
person  shall  enjoy  the  rights  of  citizenship  who  is  un- 
able to  read  and  write.  But,  if  the  example  of  our 
younger  sister  be  deemed  unworthy  of  notice ;  or  if  we 
disdain  to  imitate  where  we  imagine  our  superior  age 
entitles  us  to  take  the  lead;  or  if  her  doctrine  be  con- 
demned as  heretical;  I  have,  a  home  precedent  to  cite, 
directly  relevant  to  the  question. 

By  our  own  State  Constitution — both  old  and  new — 
clergymen  are  ineligible  to  office :  or  in  other  words,  they 
are  virtually  disfranchised.  I  suppose,  because  the}-  are 
regarded  as  either  too  ignorant  and  opinionated,  or  too 
wily  and  slippery,  to  be  trusted :  that  is,  because  they  are 
knaves  or  blockheads.  This  is,  no  doubt,  a  most  salu- 
tary, judicious,  and  strictly  republican  provision.  And 
I  laud  the  framers  of  the  said  constitution  for  their  saga- 
city and  independence.  They  might  however,  it  appears 
to  me,  have  ventured  somewhat  further,  and  extended 
their  excluding  or  disqualifying  clause  to  all  other 
knaves  and  blockheads :  and.  if  it  had  so  pleased  them, 
to  all  who  thenceforward  should  be  unable  to  read  and 
write.  There  is  nothing  therefore  in  the  principle 
which  can  be  pronounced  by  the  sovereign  people  ob- 
jectionable; since  they  have  already  sanctioned  it  to  a 
much  greater  extent  than  is  now  proposed :  in  reference, 
namely,  to  one  entire  class  and  profession  of  the  com- 
munit}-. 

And  here  I  take  leave  to  recommend  that,  in  our  next 


436  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

reformed  Constitution,  the  article  excluding  from  office 
be  made  to  comprehend  all  persons  except  farmers.  So 
that  none  but  actual  farmers  shall  be  eligible  to  office. 
This  would  be  perfectly  equitable,  because  the  farmers 
constitute  the  great  body  of  the  people,  and  therefore 
ought  to  govern.  It  Avould  prove  singularly  beneficial  to 
the  Commonwealth,  inasmuch  as  it  would  keep  in  their 
proper  places,  all  pragmatical,  self-sufficient,  beardless, 
pettifogging  lawyers  —  all  impudent,  blustering,  cure- 
aU..  high-pressure-steaming,  quack-doctors— all  meddling, 
graceless,  noisy,  dogmatical,  bigoted,  ambitious  parsons — 
and  all  idle,  dapper,  brainless  exquisites  and  loungers  of 
every  name  and  degree,  who  have  neither  purse,  charac- 
ter nor  occupation.  While  it  would  hold  out  the  great- 
est possible  encouragement  to  agriculture,  and  the 
strongest  incentives  to  a  generous  ambition  among  all 
classes  and  professions.  Thus,  the  lawyer,  the  physician, 
the  schoolmaster,  the  merchant,  the  mechanic,  and  even 
the  newspaper  editor,  who  should  aspire  to  political  dis- 
tinction, would  of  course  strive  to  acquire  by  honest 
industry,  the  means  of  purchasing  a  farm  and  retiring 
seasonably  from  professional  pursuits  and  engagements. 
Thus  the  business  of  farming  would  be  honoured,  as  it 
ought  to  be.  And  the  public  would  ever  have  before 
them  experienced,  intelligent,  upright,  independent  and 
responsible  candidates  for  every  office.  This,  too,  would 
excite  a  spirit  of  laudable  emulation  among  the  young 
men  brought  up  as  farmers.  They  would  be  eager  to 
enter  the  lists  with  the  accomplished  lawyers  and  all 
others,  expected  presently  to  settle  as  farmers  in  their 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  437 

vicinity,  and  to  canvass  among  them  for  the  honours  of 
the  Republic. 

The  onl}"  exception  to  be  provided  for,  would  be  large 
towns  and  cities — where  agriculture  cannot  be  the  occu- 
l^ation  of  any  portion  of  the  people — and  where  offices 
must  be  filled,  and  representatives  be  elected,  without 
any  connexion  with  the  adjacent  country. 

As  a  political  economist — for  I  disclaim  all  desire  and 
intention  of  intermeddling  with  personal  or  party  or 
local  politics — I  might,  in  this  connexion,  add  a  remark 
or  two  upon  the  expediency  of  taxing  landed  property 
upon  any  plan  or  principle  whatever.  In  a  State,  like 
ours,  where  land  is  the  most  abundant  article  in  the 
market^ — where  it  is  a  mere  drug — where  millions  of 
acres  are  still  unappropriated  or  unsubdued — it  would 
seem  good  policy,  by  all  equitable  and  judicious  means, 
to  encourage  the  ownership  and  cultivation  of  the  soil  to 
the  greatest  possible  extent.  If  so,  then  land  ought  to 
be  exempt  from  all  onerous  and  discouraging  impositions. 

1.  Because  it  is  the  common  parent  of  the  whole 
people — the  source  and  fountain  of  their  necessary  sub- 
sistence— the  sole  efficient  basis  and  nursery  of  all  other 
pursuits  and  avocations,  and  of  the  well-being  and  pros- 
perity of  the  entire  population,  whether  considered 
collectively  or  individually. 

2.  Because  capital  vested  in  land  is  usually  far  less 
productive  than  almost  any  other  species  of  investment. 
Farmers  generally  throughout  the  State  cannot,  with  the 
same  pecuniary  outlay  and  with  the  most  unwearied  in- 
dustry and  rigid  frugality,  reap  as  large  profits  as  the 


438  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

merchant,  mechanic,  or  manufacturer.  For  years  to 
come,  even  under  the  most  auspicious  circumstances, 
much  of  their  hand  also  must  remain  utterly  unpro- 
ductive— an  idle  or  dead  capital  upon  their  hands. 

3.  Because,  in  order  to  secure  a  permanent,  useful, 
thrifty,  contented,  attached  body  of  citizens,  they  ought 
to  be  induced  to  own  visible,  tangible,  innnovable  pro- 
perty. Land  is  such  a  property.  And  land-holders  or 
farmers  are  universally  regarded  as  the  bone  and  sinew 
and  main  reliance  of  a  free  State.  Land  therefore  ought 
to  be  precisely  the  kind  of  property  which  every  man 
should  most  covet  and  most  earnestly  labour  to  possess. 
This  will  never  be  the  case  where  land  is  more  heavily 
taxed  in  proportion  to  its  net  yield  or  profit  than  other 
modes  of  employing  capital.  Every  shrewd,  calculating, 
enterprising  capitalist  will  contrive  to  own  as  little  osten- 
sible taxable  property  as  possible.  He  will  devise  a 
thousand  ways  to  keep  it  out  of  sight  and  yet  most 
gainfully  employed.  He  will  send  it  abroad — to  the 
North  or  to  the  South — wherever  he  can  find  a  lucrative 
market  or  an  object  of  speculation: — or  he  will  exact 
usurious  interest  from  his  less  fortunate  or  less  wary 
fellow  citizens. 

4.  Because  we  are  surrounded  by  half  a  score  of 
young  Republics,  where  land  may  be  had  almost  without 
price — and  where  it  may  be  improved  without  dread  of 
sheriff  or  tax  gatherer.  Emigrants  will  not  come  hither, 
if  they  can  do  better  elsewhere.  Our  own  farmers  will 
run  away  to  Arkansas,  Mississippi,  Texas,  or  Oregon, 
when  they  shall  feel  the  pressure  of  an  unequal  system 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  439 

of  taxation,  and  find  tlieir  pockets  growing  empty  in 
spite  of  their  honest  efforts  to  fill  them. 

5.  Because,  with  a  territory  of  40,000  square  miles 
just  emerging  from  its  primitive  forest  state,  the  most 
ample  facilities  and  urgent  motives  for  its  rapid  meliora- 
tion and  solid  improvement  should  be  held  out  to  the 
people. 

What  is  it  that  enriches,  adorns  and  beautifies  any 
country?  and  renders  it  lovely  and  delightful  to  the  eye, 
and  desirable  to  live  in  ?  Is  it  not  well  cultivated  fields 
and  gardens  and  meadows  —  substantial  farm-houses, 
mills,  factories,  barns,  granaries,  fences,  hedges,  orchards, 
vineyards,  flocks  and  herds — good  roads,  turnpikes,  rail- 
ways, canals,  bridges,  and  every  possible  facility  for  safe 
and  speedy  travelling  and  transportation — with  a  due 
sprinkling  of  flourishing  hamlets,  villages,  towns  and 
cities;  abounding  with  well-built-churches,  school-houses, 
colleges,  markets,  and  other  public  edifices?  And  what 
should  we  deem  of  a  system  destined  or  purposely  de- 
vised to  discountenance  and  to  prevent  all  such  improve- 
ments ?  Tax  them — or  tax  the  land  in  a  ratio  commen- 
surate with  all  such  useful  and  ornamental  fixtures — and 
the  system  is  adopted  by  yourselves.  Tax  land  agreeably 
to  its  augmented  value  under  the  creative  hand  and 
skilful  management  of  the  most  deserving  portion  of  the 
people :  and  3'ou  paralyse  the  arm  of  domestic  industry. 
The  farmer  will  hold  on  to  his  log  cabin  and  worm  fences 
and  horse-mill;  and  never  dream  of  erecting  a  comfort- 
able mansion  of  brick  or  stone,  or  durable  structures  of 
any  sort,  which  would  add  thousands  to  the  value  of  his 


440  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

estate  and  to  the  general  wealth  of  the  community — 
because,  for  these  additional  unproductive  thousands,  he 
must  be  taxed !  And  taxed  as  highly  as  if  the  said 
thousands  were  yielding  a  revenue  of  ten  per  cent  in  the 
shape  of  Bank  stock,  or  of  twenty  or  fifty  per  cent  in  the 
capacity  of  sliaving  loans — which  last,  by  the  way,  would 
escape  taxation  altogether,  as  they  have  heretofore  done, 
in  spite  of  legislative  ingenuity  and  legal  terrors.  I  need 
not  ask,  what  would  be  the  blighted,  cheerless,  poverty- 
stricken  aspect  of  our  hitherto  prosperous  Common- 
wealth under  the  operation  of  a  system  thus  partial  and 
ill-devised.  It  requires  not  the  gift  of  prophecy  to 
predict  its  inevitable   doom. 

The  policy  can  never  be  safe  or  sound,  which  tempts 
to  concealment  or  evasion  or  subterfuge  or  trickery  or 
falsehood  or  dishonesty.  No  man  ought  to  be  deterred 
from  any  useful  pursuit  or  vocation,  nor  be  afraid  or 
ashamed  to  acknowledge  and  to  enjoy  his  possessions 
openly  before  the  world.  No  vexatious  domiciliary  in- 
trusions or  visitations  by  the  legal  assessor  or  collector 
ought  to  be  dreaded  by  any  freeman.  Nor  ought  laws 
ever  to  be  enacted  which  shall  have  the  slightest  ten- 
dency to  place  him  in  such  an  awkward  predica- 
ment. 

Again,  if  land  must  be  taxed,  it  should  be  taxed 
according  to  its  actual  yearly  product — and  not  ac- 
cording to  its  gross  valuation,  arbitrarily  determined, 
whether  productive  or  unproductive.  Or  the  land  might 
be  distributed  into  classes  (as  first,  second,  third  rate, 
&c.)  according  to  the  quality  of  the  soil ;  and  the  tax  be 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  441 

apportioned  aggreeably  to  such  a  fixed  and  well  under- 
stood system  of  classification.  The  last  would  proba- 
bly be  found  the  least  objectionable  mode. 

G.  But  in  the  sixth  place:  In  such  a  Commonwealth 
as  this — encompassed  as  w^e  are  by  an  illimitable  wilder- 
ness of  fertile  soil — land,  farmers'  land,  I  mean,  (for  I 
say  nothing  of  town  lots,)  ought  not  to  be  taxed  at  all. 
Let  the  land  go  free — free  as  the  water  of  our  springs 
and  rivers — free  as  the  pure  atmosphere  of  heaven — and 
then  all  our  people  will  aspire  to  a  landed  competency 
and  independence.  We  shall  be  a  community  of  intelli- 
gent and  happy  ftirmers.  The  poorest  mechanic  and  day 
labourer  will  instantly  realize  the  benefits  of  such  an 
exemption — as  they  would  be  the  first  to  experience  the 
evils  of  a  contrary  policy.  Land  cannot  be  taxed,  with- 
out taxing  every  individual  and  every  occupation  and 
every  commodity  in  the  State.  The  very  milk  and 
bread  and  meat  which  the  poor  man  eats,  will  be  taxed ; 
because  they  are  the  product  of  a  taxed  soil.  He  must 
either  labour  for  less,  or  pay  more  for  each  and  all  the 
necessaries  of  life. 

Should  we  expunge  or  alter  one  short  section  of  our 
new  or  amended  constitution,  and  then  boldly  resolve, 
that,  henceforth,  the  lair  lands  of  Tennessee  shall  be 
free  from  taxation — free  forever,  or  for  a  definite  period, 
sufficiently  long  for  a  satisfactory  experiment — say  for 
fifty  or  one  hundred  years — the  great  body  of  my  fellow 
citizens  might  live  to  see  this  become  one  of  the  most 
flourishing,  if  not  absolutely  the  most  flourishing  Com- 
monwealth upon  the  globe. 


442  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

7.  Taxation  is  always  an  evil,  unci  should  therefore 
be  rendered  as  light  as  possible.  Men  should  be  taxed, 
not  according  to  the  gross  value  of  their  property,  nor 
according  to  their  annual  income  or  net  profits — nor 
according  to  what  they  own  or  produce  or  lay  up  as 
clear  gain — but  according  to  their  actual  consumption 
or  expenditure.  Tax  not  what  they  earn,  but  what 
they  spend.  This  is  the  only  fair  and  uniformly  equi- 
table principle  of  taxation.  Tax  consumption  (always 
excepting  the  necessaries  of  life)  and  you  allow  the 
people  an  option  whether  to  pay  or  not,  and  also,  to 
what  amount.  This  is  the  sj^stem  adopted  by  the 
General  Government.  Certain  imported  articles  are 
taxed:  but  no  man  is  compelled  to  eat,  drink,  wear, 
use  or  possess  any  foreign  commodity  whatever.  He 
can  produce  or  procure  all  the  mere  necessaries  of  sub- 
sistence at  home,  or  of  home  production.  He  may  pur- 
chase the  taxed  or  dutiable  foreign  goods  or  forbear 
at  pleasure.  He  uses  little  or  much,  as  he  chooses;  and 
pays  according  to  the  quantity  or  value  actually  con 
sumed.  Now  although  this  precise  mode  of  taxation 
cannot  be  resorted  to  by  any  particular  State,  yet 
the  principle  of  taxing  consumption  may  be  made  the 
basis  of  any  revenue  code,  and  be  applied  in  a  difierent 
fashion. 

Objection  1.  All  this  will  be  met  with  the  triumphant 
assertion,  that,  the  entire  State  tax  will  be  so  very  small 
that  none  can  feel  it.  I  answer,  that,  it  is  the  principle, 
not  the  amount  of  the  present  burden,  which  deserves 
attention  and   should   awaken   solicitude.     Our  fathers 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  443 

fought  seven  long  years  for  a  2)rinciple,  and  not  for 
the  paltry  tax  of  three  pence  upon  the  pound  of 
tea. 

Objection  2.  But  the  new  Constitution  has  settled  the 
whole  aflf^iir,  and  the  land  must  be  taxed  ad  valorem. 
I  answer,  let  the  article  upon  taxation  be  repealed  or 
amended  by  tlie  people,  agreeably  to  the  mode  pre- 
scribed by  the  Constitution :  and  the  sooner  the  better. 

That  the  farmers  of  Tennessee  should  have  consented 
to  the  introduction  into  the  fjreat  charter  of  their  rights, 
an  article  requiring  the  perpetual  infliction  upon  them- 
selves of  the  most  annoying  and  oppressive  species  of 
taxation  ever  yet  devised  hj  impolicy  or  injustice,  is 
passing  strange.  They  have  sanctioned  an  instrument, 
and  delegated  a  power,  which  can  scarcely  be  so  con- 
strued or  exerted  as  not  to  prove  detrimental,  and  which 
maij  be  used  with  tremendous  effect.  Assuredly,  our 
farmers  have  not  3-et  studied  their  own  interests,  or 
learned  how  to  govern  themselves  in  the  cheapest  mode. 
After  all,  the  pecuniary  burden  is  a  trifle,  compared 
with  the  moral  evils  which  the  novel  experiment  seems 
likely  to  occasion.  These  have  been  hinted  at  already : 
and  if  a  tithe  of  them  shall  be  realized,  then,  farewell 
to  our  character  as  well  as  to  our  prosperity. 

Now,  in  all  these  remarks  and  suggestions,  I  profess  to 
aim  directly  at  the  welfare  of  the  poor.  I  believe  myself 
to  be  their  honest  friend,  and  the  uncompromising  advo- 
cate of  every  measure  truly  designed  to  better  their  con- 
dition. I  am  equally  sure  that  the  interests  of  both 
rich  and  poor  are  perfectly  identical,  under   any  code 


444  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

of  free  and  equal  laws,  impartially  administered.  -The 
chief  object  contemplated,  and  supposed  to  have  been 
effectually  asserted  by  our  revolutionary  sages,  was  pre- 
cisely to  secure  to  every  man  the  fruits  of  his  own  in- 
dustry, talents  and  enterprise.  In  other  words,  to 
enable  the  poor  to  become  independent  and  wealthy. 
Were  our  people  wisely  governed,  faithfully  instruc- 
ted, and  duly  trained  to  habits  of  virtue,  industry  and 
economy,  there  would  be  no  abject  or  hopeless  poor 
in  all  the  land.  To  bring  about  such  a  grand  moral 
revolution,  is  or  ought  to  be  the  principal  business  of  the 
Legislature.  When  this  object  shall  be  attained,  the 
governing  and  law-making  powers  will  have  very  little 
to  do.  Their  work  will  have  been  accomplished :  and 
they  may  thenceforth  rest  from  their  labours. 

But,  to  return  from  a  "rather  long  and  perhaps  not 
very  pertinent  digression. 

The  people  must  be  taught  and  induced  to  help  them- 
selves. This  is  the  only  eftectual  remedy  for  ignorance, 
poverty,  and  all  sorts  of  misery.  To  relieve  a  beggar 
for  the  moment  is  a  trifle.  But  to  put  him  in  the  way 
to  earn  an  honest  and  competent  livelihood  for  the  rest 
of  his  life,  is  commendable  and  substantial  charity. 
I  have  shown  that  it  is  possible  for  a  wise  and  pater- 
nal Legislature,  when  duly  authorized,  if  not  already 
authorized  by  the  Constitution,  to  jiut  into  practical 
operation  a  system  of  common  school  education,  by 
simply  rendering  such  an  education  essential  to  the 
possession  or  exercise  of  certain  civil  functions  and 
franchises.      As    I    intimated,    nothing    more   w\as    in- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  445 

tended  than  to  illnstrate  the  principle  of  stimulating  the 
people  to  self-exertion  by  some  commanding  and  para- 
mount motive.  What  that  motive  ought  to  be,  I  leave 
others  to  determine. 

The  people  need  be  no  longer  dazzled  or  blinded 
by  the  splendor  of  a  magnificent  school-fund — which 
they  will  never  live  to  see — however  much  they  may 
hear  of  it  from  those,  who,  for  their  suffrages,  are  ready 
enough  to  make  golden  promises,  and  to  excite  extrava- 
gant expectations,  while  they  care  not  a  rush  for  them 
or  their  children.  I  have  no  great  confidence  in  the 
legislative  management  of  large  funds  of  any  descrip- 
tion or  for  any  purpose.  Past  experience,  in  nearly 
all  the  States,  affords  ample  ground  for  this  general 
distrust.  And  the  history  of  Tennessee  legislation  has 
no  tendency  to  diminish  it.  The  College  and  Academy 
fund  of  this  State — originally  the  gift  of  Congress — 
might  have  proved,  under  other  auspices,  adequate  to 
the  noble  purposes  for  which  it  was  designed.  I  will 
not  ask  how  or  wherefore  that  fund  has  been  scattered 
to  the  winds  and  nearly  annihilated.  But  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say,  that  it  has  proved  a  curse  rather  than 
a  blessing  to  this  Commonwealth. 

In  the  first  place,  the  people  relied  with  implicit  con- 
fidence on  the  sufficiency  of  this  large  fund  for  the  estab- 
lishment and  support  of  colleges  and  academies :  and 
therefore  never  felt  the  obligation  of  attempting  any 
thing  in  behalf  of  those  institutions,  either  through  the 
instrumentality  of  the  State  treasury,  or  by  individual 
munificence   and  voluntarv  contributions.      The   conse- 


446  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

quence  is,  that,  to  this  day,  ahnost  nothing  has  been 
achieved. 

In  the  second  phice,  this  same  fund  has  been,  from 
the  first,  a  bone  of  contention,  on  all  possible  occasions 
and  in  every  variety  of  form.  And  when  the  contro- 
versies and  enmities  which  it  has  excited  and  fomented, 
will  be  allayed  or  extinguished,  it  is  impossible  to  pre- 
dict. Better  had  it  been — infinitely  better  for  the  inte- 
rests of  science — if  no  such  benefaction  had  ever  been 
bestowed  or  accepted.  But  let  us  forgive  and  forget  the 
past — while  we  submit  to  be  taught  a  seasonable  and 
useful  lesson  from  experience. 

We  should  not  hlindly  follow  even  the  good  example 
of  other  States.  Had  we,  at  this  moment,  a  school-fund 
as  ample  as  that  of  New  York,  and  were  we  to  copy  her 
entire  school  code  verbatim,  I  have  not  the  most  distant 
idea  that  the  practical  operation  and  effects  of  the 
system  here  would  be  equally  salutary  or  at  all  similar. 
Everything  depends  on  the  judicious  and  efficient  ad- 
ministration of  the  system — on  the  skill,  fidelity,  wis- 
dom, zeal,  perseverance,  and  strict  accountability  of  all 
the  agents  employed — and  very  much,  I  may  add,  on 
certain  moral,  local  and  conventional  peculiarities,  to 
which  we  are,  and  ever  must  be  strangers.  The  scat- 
tered population  of  the  South  and  South- West — even 
other  things  being  equal — will  never  admit  of  a  school 
arrangement  similar  to  that  which  obtains  in  the  East- 
ern villages.  Mr.  Jefferson  distinctly  perceived  and 
pointed  out  this  difficult}^  in  Virginia.  And  Louisi- 
ana, after  expending  many  thousands  upon  the  experi- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  447 

ineiit,  has  since  made  the  same  discovery.  I  am  aware 
that  the  sparseness  of  a  planting  popukition  presents  a 
difficulty  formidable  to  every  plan  of  public  schools, 
designed  for  all  classes  of  the  people — a  difficulty  which 
must  be  fairly  met  by  the  advocates  of  any  system  what- 
ever. 

I  w^ould  not  have  it  inferred,  however,  from  these 
remarks,  that  I  object  to  any  feasible  project  for  the 
immediate  or  eventual  accumulation  of  a  school-fund. 
But  the  grand  heresy  on  the  subject,  which  infects  the 
brain  of  not  a  few  of  our  popular  sages,  is  this  eternal 
projecting  of  some  splendid  visionary  scheme  for  pos- 
terity— while  the  existing  thousands  are  Jieglected. 
The  people  are  continually  directed  to  the  future — 
to  their  children's  children — to  the  third  and  fourth 
generations — wdien  all  ignorance  is  to  be  suddenly 
dispelled — when  the  long  wished  for  millennium  is  to 
dawn — and  universal  intelligence,  order,  virtue,  peace 
and  prosperity  to  prevail!  This  dilatory,  procrasti- 
nating, delusive  policy  in  regard  to  popular  educa- 
tion, appears  to  be  signally  characteristic  of  no  small 
number  of  these  States — whatever  may  be  said  of  our 
own. 

The  best  preventive  of  future  evils,  is  the  speedy 
eradication  of  existing  evils.  If  we  would  render  suc- 
ceeding generations  intelligent,  virtuous  and  happ}-,  we 
must  commence  with  the  present.  Delays  are  ahvays 
dangerous;  and  on  no  subject  more  so,  than  in  regard  to 
the  suitable  discipline  and  training  of  our  children. 
Is  there  a  reflecting  parent  among  us  who  will  be  satis- 


448  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

fied  with  the  mere  indefinite  promise  or  prospect  that 
provision  may  be  made  hereafter  for  the  education  of  his 
remote  posteritj',  while  his  sons  and  daughters  are  grow- 
ing up  around  him  hke  the  wild  natives  of  the  forest? 

My  creed  on  the  subject  may  be  propounded  in  few 
words:  Instruct  the  present  generation;  and  the  whole 
work  is  achieved  at  once,  efiectually,  and  forever.  When 
the  impulse  is  fairW  given  to  the  intellectual  mass,  the 
march  of  improvement  will  be  progressive:  and  no 
ordinary  obstacles  will  ever  arrest  it.  There  will 
then  be  no  lack  of  adequate  motive  to  exertion  and 
enterprise  in  this  behalf  Each  enlightened  and  culti- 
vated generation  will  take  good  care  of  the  succeeding. 
And  thus  will  the  light  of  knowledge  be  transmitted 
from  father  to  son,  without  interruption,  to  the  end  of 
time — or,  at  least,  until,  by  some  terrible  convulsion, 
our  whole  political  aud  social  fabric  shall  be  buried 
in  the  ruins  of  expiring  liberty  and  civilization. 

Will  it  be  pretended  that  the  wealth  of  the  State  is 
not  sufficient  to  educate  the  children  of  the  State  ?  Were 
a  law  enacted  to-morrow,  no  matter  upon  what  ostensible 
plea,  requiring,  under  adequate  penalties,  every  parent  to 
teach,  or  cause  to  be  taught,  his  children  to  read  and 
write:  would  it  be  objected  that  many  of  the  people 
are  too  poor,  b}'  any  efforts  or  sacrifices,  to  do  this?  I 
answer  fearlessly,  the  fact  is  not  so.  There  exists  not 
in  Tennessee,  (nor  in  this  Union,)  a  poor  man,  healthy, 
industrious,  sober  and  economical,  who  could  not  do  it 
with  perfect  ease.  And  if  such  a  law  should  tend  to 
make  poor  men  temperate,  industrious  and  frugal :  would 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUKSES.  449 

not  this  be  a  great  blessing  to  themselves,  to  their  fami- 
lies, and  to  the  public?     How  much  of  time  and  money 
does  every  poor  man  squander  annually  in  modes  and 
upon  objects  which  are  needless  or  injurious?     I  might 
read  a  lecture  upon  this  subject  to  our  thriftless  poor, 
from   the   pages   of  Frankhn,    Adam    Smith,    Say  and 
Jefferson,   which,   if    it   should    be   listened    to,    could 
hardly  fail   to   convince   them,    that   self-denial,  perse- 
vering indus-try  and  rigid  economy  would  soon  render 
them  as  completely  independent,  and  as  capable  of  duly 
instructing  their  children,  as   the  wealthiest  nabobs  of 
the  land.     But  such  a  lecture,  though  enforced  by  the 
grave  authority  of  all  the  political  and  domestic  econo- 
mists from  Solomon  inclusive  to  the  present  day,  would 
probably  be  no  more  regarded  than  an  orthodox  sermon 
against  fashionable  amusements.      Ay,   the  fashion! — 
This  is  the  tyrant  that  grinds  the  poor  and  befools  the 
rich.     Our  people  pay,  as  I  have  said  once  before,  half  a 
million  of  dollars  every  year  to  support  a  useless,  oppres- 
sive and  absurd  militia  system — because  it  is  the  fashion  I 
They  pay  another  half  million  to  be  well  governed ;  and 
to  be  duly  entitled,  through  the  agency  of  their  obliging 
attorneys,  to  the  contingencies  and  tender  mercies  of 
their  most  wise  and  equitable  laws.     They  cheerfull\- 
pay  two  millions  annually  to  the  whisky  cause.     They 
participate  in  all  the  excesses  of  the  race-course,  (the 
worst  species  of  gambling,  by  the  way,  ever  yet  con- 
trived by  human  depravity,)  and  a  thousand  other  ex- 
travagant follies.     They  build  prisons  and  penitentiaries 
for  the  comfortable  accommodation  of  petty  rogues,  who 
VOL.  I.  -^ 


450  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

have  not  wit  or  money  enough  to  escape  clete-ction 
or  conviction;  while  your  dashing  swindlers  and  gen- 
tlemanly assassins  walk  at  large,  and  laugh  to  scorn 
your  whole  array  of  legal  terrors  and  penalties.  All 
this  and  more  they  endure  and  pay  for — because  it  is 
the  fashion.  And  yet,  forsooth,  they  cannot  teach 
their  children  to  read  and  write ! 

Suppose  now,  in  order  to  insure  the  immediate  instruc- 
tion of  all  the  children  in  Tennessee,  it  be  assumed  that 
a  system  of  common  schools  similar  to  that  of  New 
York  or  Massachusetts  is  indispensable :  is  it  practicable, 
without  a  fund,  to  put  so  expensive  a  machinery  into 
operation  forthwith?  Undoubtedly  it  is;  so  far  as  the 
mere  matter  of  expense  is  in  question.  It  is  just  as 
easy,  for  example,  to  build  schoolhouses  and  acadamies 
as  it  is  to  build  jails  and  courthouses.  And  when  the 
former  shall  be  erected,  they  will  probably  be  less  bur- 
densome than  the  latter  in  the  keeping.  In  Maine — 
and  the  common  school  system  is  said  to  be  nowhere 
mxore  flourishing  and  effective — the  average  annual  cost 
to  every  inhabitant  for  its  maintenance,  is,  as  we  have 
seen,  only  forty  cents.  If  the  same  system  would 
answer  equally  well  here,  and  if  it  could  be  sustained  at 
the  same  rate:  would  it  be  impossible — would  it  be 
grievously  burdensome — to  demand  forty  cents  a  year 
from  every  white  or  free  individual  in  the  State,  for  this 
confessedly  most  urgent  and  most  important  object?  Or 
would  it  be  impracticable  to  levy  the  amount  equitably 
upon  the  i^roducth-e  property  of  the  Commonwealth? 
I  put  all  this  hypothetically — and  I  really  think  that  a 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  451 

deficiency  of  pecuniary  resources  cannot  be  even  spe- 
ciously pleaded  in  bar  of  any  such  scheme.  Whether, 
on  other  accounts,  it  be  expedient  or  pohtic,  to  tax  indus- 
try in  support  of  idleness,  or  to  tax  virtue  in  favour  of 
profligacy — is  quite  a  different  affair.  Whether  the  rich 
— that  is,  whether  those  who  have  acquired  wealth  by 
honest  labour  and  skilful  management — should  be  taxed 
in  order  to  educate  the  children  of  the  poor,  that  is,  of 
the  indolent  or  the  abandoned,  any  more  than  they 
should  be  taxed  to  feed  and  clothe  them — is  well  worthy 
of  grave  consideration. 

But  again :  If  the  people  will  do  nothing  for  them- 
selves, nor  submit  to  any  species  of  taxation ;  and  if  the 
State  treasury  admit  of  an  immediate  appropriation  of 
ten,  twenty,  thirty,  or  forty  thousand  dollars  to  this  object 
— would  it  not  be  expedient  for  the  Legislature  so  to  dis- 
pose of  this  sum  as  to  secure  the  thorough  instruction 
of  a  definite  portion  of  the  people's  children,  rather  than 
to  fritter  it  away  in  unavailing  gratuities  to  every  section 
of  the  State  at  once?  Why  not  provide  effectually  for 
one,  two,  or  more  counties  at  a  time,  according  to  the 
means  at  command?  I  am  perfectly  aware  of  the  objec- 
tion to  any  such  measure.  It  would  be  denounced  as 
partial  and  unjust.  The  simple  reply  is,  that  it  is 
better  to  do  a  little  well,  than  to  attempt  a  great  deal 
and  accomplish  nothing.  But  how,  or  upon  what  prin- 
ciple, shall  the  selection  be  made?  Shall  Wilson  or 
Bedford  be  favoured,  while  Davidson  and  Rutherford  are 
neglected?  If  no  satisfactory  rule  could  be  established.: 
— let  the  choice  be  determined  by  lot.     I  am  a  friend  to 


452  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

equal  rights,  and  to  an  equal  distribution  of  a  common 
fund.  But  here  the  question  would  be,  whether  a  given 
sum  of  money  should  be  expended  for  a  valuable  pur- 
pose, or  be  thrown  away.  In  the  latter  case,  no  mortal 
could  be  benefited — in  the  former  some  might.  And  a 
lottery  would  silence  even  the  most  invidious  and  un- 
reasonable objector.  This  is  but  another  hypothesis. 
Constitutional  objections  may  be  obviated,  as  in  other 
cases,  by  amendment. 

Instead  however  of  the  latter  mode,  superior  as  it 
certainly  is  to  the  one  generally  prevalent,  (to  that, 
namely,  of  doling  out  a  small  fund,  by  the  dollar,  over 
a  wide  surface  upon  which  it  could  produce  no  sensible 
effect,)  I  would  recommend  a  different  course  altogether. 
I  would  appropriate  such  a  fund  exclusively  either  to 
the  erection  of  one  great  central  school  or  university  for 
the  gratuitous  instruction  of  whatever  youth  might 
choose  to  attend  it;  or  to  the  education  of  a  certain 
number  of  schoolmasters  in  some  well-conducted  existing 
seminary.  The  best  and  speediest  mode  of  enlightening 
a  community,  is  to  provide  accomplished  teachers  for  the 
children  and  youth  of  such  a  community.  One  brilliant 
blazing  sun  in  the  firmament,  will  shed  around  and  be- 
neath infinitely  more  light  and  heat  than  a  thousand 
twinkling  stars.  Plant  a  noble  university  in  our  midst: 
and  from  its  portals  will  issue  streams  of  cheering  light 
upon  every  dark  corner  of  the  land.  Whereas,  if  you 
are  content  to  get  up  a  few  scores  of  old-field  schools, 
that  is,  of  mere  farthing  candles  or  feeble  rush-lights  at 
various  distant  points  in  the  wilderness,  you  will  but 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  453 

render  the  darkness  more  visible  and  repulsive.  No 
country  was  ever  enlightened  or  elevated  by  such  a 
process.  Show  us  a  thoroughly  intelligent  population 
anywhere  upon  earth — and  you  shall  trace  that  intelli- 
gence to  the  higher  and  the  highest  seats  of  learning — 
and  never  to  the  inferior  or  lowest.  Where  are  to  be 
found  the  best  common  schools  in  Europe  and  America? 
Precisely  where  the  college  and  university  are  most 
honoured  and  cherished.  I  defy  the  most  captious  to 
furnish  a  solitary  exception.  Light  flows  only  from  the 
Sun.  The  moon  and  stars  do  but  reflect  and  diffuse  the 
lustre  derived  from  this  original  fountain.  The  Univer- 
sity has  created,  and  still  nourishes  and  upholds,  all  the 
common  schools  in  the  world.  Demolish  the  university 
— and  you  not  only  blot  out  the  sun  of  science  forever, 
but  you  extinguish  all  the  humbler  and  dependent  lumina- 
ries. Establish  a  University  in  New  Holland  or  Caffra- 
ria,  and  give  it  full  scope  and  fair  play;  and  the  common 
school  shall  grow  up  spontaneously  around  it.  I  speak 
the  words  of  truth  and  soberness — because  I  speak  the 
language  and  proclaim  the  results  of  experience. 

The  universities  of  Chaldea,  Assyria,  Phoenicia,  Egypt, 
Greece,  Rome,  were  the  fountains  whence  all  the  rivulets 
of  knowledge  flowed  among  the  people.  Adam  (or  his 
wife)  was  the  first  teacher  of  an  elementary  or  infont  or 
common  school.  He  was  also  the  first  founder,  as  he 
was  the  first  President,  of  a  great  and  opulent  and  most 
learned  university.  And  he  had  been  educated  and 
qualified  for  his  high  destinies  in  the  University  of 
Heaven. 


454  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Let  Tennessee  enable  the  University  of  Nashville  to 
train  up  a  hundred  young  men  annually  for  the  sole 
business  of  school-keeping,  if  she  please — either  by  a 
generous  endowment  at  once,  or  by  an  annual  appropria- 
tion for  the  purpose.  Or  let  the  Legislature  resolve  to 
educate,  under  their  own  special  supervision,  one  hundred 
poor  youth,  more  or  less,  at  this  or  some  better  institu- 
tion, upon  the  express  condition  that  they  shall  serve 
the  State  as  schoolmasters,  or  refund  the  money  thus 
advanced  together  with  interest — and  we  shall  soon  wit- 
ness the  rise  of  common  schools  in  abundance,  and  of  a 
character  vastly  superior  to  those  currently  known  under 
this  denomination.  Give  us  men  competent  to  teach, 
and  desirous  to  teach  for  a  living :  and  they  w^ill  work 
their  way  to  public  favour  and  patronage.  The  uni- 
versal complaint,  even  in  the  older  States,  is,  that  the 
teachers  of  common  schools  are,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
utterly  unfit  for  their  vocation;  and  bad  teachers  are 
worse  than  none.  To  commit  children  to  bungling,  lazy, 
intemperate,  swaggering  vagabonds,  knaves,  and  smat- 
terers,  is  very  like  perpetrating  intellectual  and  moral 
treason  or  assassination  w^ith  malice  prepense.  If  there 
be  one  object  under  the  w^hole  heaven  which  parents 
should  be  eager  to  purchase  at  any  price  or  sacrifice — 
which  is  indeed  above  all  price — it  is  the  proper  educa- 
tion of  their  children.  If  there  be  one  good  object, 
w^hich  pre-eminently  demands  the  profoundest  attention 
of  the  Legislature — it  is  this.  When  they,  or  the  people, 
shall  succeed  in  obeying  the  divine  command:  "Train 
up  a  child  in   the  way  he  should  go," — the   promise 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  455 

annexed  will  as  certainly  be  fulfilled :  "  and  when  lie  is 
old,  he  will  not  depart  from  it." 

In  regard  to  those  States  where  common  schools  are 
allowed  to  be  on  the  best  footing ;  it  is  worthy  of  inquiry, 
whether  they  have  proved  reasonably  and  satisfactorily 
efficient  in  promoting  virtue  and  good  morals.  Here, 
truth  constrains  me  to  answer,  that,  from  public  official 
documents,  it  appears  that  crimes  have  fearfully  in- 
creased in  Connecticut  and  New  York  during  the  last 
eight  or  ten  years.  Whatever  may  be  urged  therefore  in 
behalf  of  the  intellectual  discipline  adopted  in  their 
schools — there  must  be  a  lamentable  deficiency  of  moral 
and  religious  instruction.  This  is  a  radical  defect — ac- 
knowledged and  deplored  by  their  own  best  citizens.  It 
adds  another  to  the  thousand  melancholy  proofs  already 
before  the  w^oiid,  that  no  species  of  mental  cultivation 
can  ever  be  truly  beneficial,  where  the  pupils  do  not,  at 
the  same  time,  acquire  moral  and  religious  principles  and 
habits.  Every  teacher,  in  every  school,  from  the  infant 
nursery  up  to  the  university,  ought  to  be  deeply  imbued 
with  the  purest  spirit  of  Christian  morality,  and  to 
labour  assiduously  in  moulding  the  hearts  and  lives  of 
his  youthful  charge  agreeably  to  the  only  standard  of 
\drtue  and  integrity  which  is  recognised  among  Christian 
men.  To  educate  Christian  youth  as  heathens  or  athe- 
ists, is  at  once  absurd  and  monstrous.  To  expect  such 
youth  to  become  good,  moral,  peaceful,  orderly,  religious 
men,  is  to  expect  a  miracle.  In  this  all-essential  attri- 
bute, the  New  York  system  is  little  superior  to  that  of 
Connecticut :  and  both  have  proved  egregious  failures. 


456  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

I  will  never  advocate  or  countenance  a  system  which 
does  not  tend  directly  to  form  good  as  well  as  intelligent 
citizens.  And  it  is  perfectly  fair  and  equitable  to  judge 
of  any  system  by  its  effects — as  it  is  to  judge  of  a  tree 
by  its  fruits. 

In  New  England,  with  the  exception  of  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island,  the  school  system  is  represented  as 
eminently  successful  in  its  moral  and  religious  agency. 
Her  citizens  are  reputed  to  be  the  most  intelligent,  the 
most  enterprising,  and  the  most  virtuous  in  the  world. 
Such,  at  least,  is  their  o^vn  estimate  of  themselves  :  and 
they  ought  to  know.  If  the  fact  be  so,  we  may  cheer- 
fully accord  to  their  system  the  pre-eminence  which  it 
has  hitherto  challenged  in  the  opinion  of  mankind. 
Should  a  Southerner  or  Backwoodsman  happen  to  ex- 
press any  doubt  about  the  fact,  in  consequence  of  certain 
unlucky  specimens  of  the  Yankee  character,  which  may 
have  fallen  under  his  own  eye,  in  the  shape  of  tin-ped- 
lers,  book-agents,  school-hunters,  college-builders,  venders 
of  wooden  clocks,  horn  flints  and  such  like  notions,  and 
especially  of  reverend  money  beggars  for  all  sorts  of 
pseudo  literary  and  benevolent  projects  —  if,  I  say,  he 
should  be  thus  led  to  question  the  pie;'?/,  though  he  might 
concede  the  full  measure  of  shrewdness  and  intelligence 
claimed,  he  will  be  told  that  such  is  the  unparalleled 
purity  of  the  moral  atmosphere  throughout  New  Eng- 
land, that  rogues  cannot  breathe  it — that  they  will  not 
be  tolerated  at  home — and  that,  therefore,  to  escape  the 
frowns  and  contempt  of  their  countrymen,  and  to  be  at 
a  safe  distance  from  the  penitentiary  and  tread-mill,  they 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  457 

invariably  emigrate  or  run  off  to  the  South  and  West — 
there  to  live  by  their  wits,  that  is,  by  cheating  the  na- 
tives. It  is  thus,  we  are  assured,  that  the  term  Yanhee 
has  acquired  a  notoriety  and  a  meaning  so  equivocal  and 
unsavory.  We  are  invited  to  study  the  Yankee  at  his 
own  fireside,  and  among  his  granite  hills  and  beautiful 
villages ;  and  we  are  boldly  defied  to  point  out  his  equal 
upon  the  globe.  All  this  is  right.  A  people  should  be 
studied  at  home,  and  be  estimated  according  to  their 
home  character.  K  it  be  true  then,  in  Massachusetts  for 
instance,  that  public  opinion  is  so  sound  and  so  potent  as 
to  render  it  unsafe,  undesirable  or  impracticable  for  the 
profligate  or  dishonest  to  remain  within  her  limits — that 
they  must  either  remove,  or  certainly  be  hanged  or  im- 
prisoned— we  must  admit  the  general  excellence  of  the 
system  under  which,  as  children  and  youth,  they  have 
all  been  trained.  What  would  have  been  the  result  of 
the  experiment,  if  she  had  not  been  favoured  with  a 
thousand  safety  valves  to  let  off  superfluous  steam  and 
noxious  gases — or  if  she  had  not  been  situated  upon  the 
borders  of  an  interminable  wilderness,  ready  to  receive 
and  to  welcome  all  the  idlers  and  knaves  which  she 
could  possibly  furnish — it  is  bootless  to  inquire. 

There  are  certain  rather  ominous  indications  hovrever 
just  now,  which  may  cause  a  momentary  suspension  of 
our  faith  in  the  New  England  creed.  Sundry  Quixotes 
in  that  region  have  been,  for  several  years  past,  engaged 
in  a  crusade  against  all  manner  of  error,  wickedness  and 
oppression,  and  in  endeavouring  to  rigid  all  the  v'rongs 
in  the  world.     In  their  search  after  new  fields  of  bene- 


458  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

volent  labour,  they  have  at  length  descried,  and.  they 
appear  to  have  taken  a  special  fancy  to,  the  coloured 
population  of  the  South  and  West.  Under  the  goodly 
and  significant  appellations  of  Anti-Slavery  Societies, 
Abolitionists,  Amcdgamationists,  Immediatists,  &c.,  they 
have  manifested  a  calculating  zeal  and  prudent  courage 
worthy  of  all  admiration  :  while,  with  perfect  safety  to 
their  own  persons,  they  have  been  busily  digging  the 
mine  and  laying  the  train  to  blow  sJcy  high  both  the 
negro  and  the  white  man  throughout  one-half  of  the 
Republic.  How  New  England  is  to  be  eventually  dis- 
charged of  this  rapidly  increasing  host  of  fanatics  and 
agitators — is  the  question.  She  cannot  creditably  retain 
them  unchecked  and  unrebuked  in  her  own  bosom.  Will 
her  neighbours  receive  them  ?  Will  she  eject  them  by 
force  ?  Will  she  restrain  their  liberty  of  speech  or 
action  ?  Will  public  opinion  expel  them,  as  it  has  here- 
tofore expelled  multitudes  of  rogues,  enthusiasts  and 
impostors  ?  One  thing  is  certain :  they  will  not,  as  their 
predecessors  have  been  hitherto  wont  to  do,  venture  to 
seek  their  fortune  or  risk  their  necks  south  of  the  Poto- 
mac or  Ohio  —  so  long  as  the  right  worshipful  Judge 
Lynch  and  the  most  redoubtable  Captain  Slick  shall 
hold  office  and  be  duly  honoured  amongst  us.* 

*  The  author  having  alluded  to  certain  practices  in  a  way  that  might 
possibly  be  misunderstood,  begs  to  state  that  he  holds  in  utter  abhor- 
rence every  assumption  of  power  and  every  infliction  of  punishment  by 
any  mob  or  portion  of  the  people  whatever,  unauthorized  by  the  laws 
of  the  land.  Abolitionists  have  the  right  to  publish  their  opinions 
whenever  and  wherever  they  please,  if  not  prohibited  by  law  :  and  to 
the  law  only,  and  to  tribunals  established  by  law,  are  they  amenable. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  459 

Upon  the  whole  then,  I  concUide  that  the  New  Eng- 
land school  system — though  very  good,  perhaps  the  best 
in  the  world — is  not  absolutely  perfect :  inasmuch  as  all 
her  sons  are  not  trained  up  in  the  way  they  should  go ; 
otherwise,  when  old,  they  would  not  become  either  stroll- 
ing sharpers  or  meddling  emancipationists. 

I  have  thus  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  my  in- 
dulgent hearers,  sundry  plans  of  common  school  educa- 
tion which  have  been  tried,  or  which  are  now  in  operation 
in  the  several  States — together  with  my  own  comments 
upon  them,  which  may  go  for  what  they  are  worth.  I 
have  also  thrown  out  a  variety  of  suggestions  upon  the 
subject  generally,  and  in  reference  to  other  possible 
modes  of  meeting  the  actual  exigencies  of  the  country. 
And  all  this  with  a  view  chiefly  to  provoke  or  to  induce 
reflection  and  examination,  and  an  interchange  of  opinion 
among  the  people,  upon  this  topic  of  deep  and  universal 
concernment :  That  something  may,  at  length,  be  done 
towards  the  removal  of  the  stigma  which  has  hitherto 
fastened  upon  the  character  of  this  land  of  heroes,  in 
the  eyes  of  our  sister  Republics.  Will  Tennessee — 
proud,  gallant,  chivalrous  Tennessee — consent  to  become 
the  Boeotia  of  the  Western  World  ? 

I  shall  next  consider  the  subject  under  a  difierent 
aspect. 

A  population,  consisting  chiefly  of  planters,  or  farmers 
and  labourers,  where  land  is  cheap  and  abundant,  must 
necessarily  be  thinly  scattered  over  a  large  surface. 
Such  is  the  fact  in  regard  to  the  great  body  of  the  people 
in  this  State.     In  the  Eastern  and  Middle  States,  the 


460  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

people  reside  in  villages,  or  in  clusters  upon  small  farms 
adjacent  to  each  other.  It  is  comparatively  easy,  in  the 
latter,  so  to  arrange  the  school  districts  as  to  accommo- 
date all  the  inhabitants.  Such  a  convenient  distribution 
or  location  of  schools  cannot  be  made  among  us.  I  leave 
out  of  view,  at  present,  our  towns  and  compactly  settled 
neighborhoods;  —  because  in  them  any  description  of 
schools,  that  the  people  choose,  may  be  maintained.  But 
how  is  the  country  at  large  to  be  supplied  ?  Where  only 
a  few  families  occupy  a  space  of  several  square  miles,  it 
is  obvious  that  a  central  school  would  not  suffice ;  because 
it  would  be  too  remote  from  the  homes  of  most  of  the 
children :  and  it  is  equally  obvious  that  a  school  could 
not  be  provided  for  each  family,  or  for  each  half  dozen 
families,  thus  circumstanced.  Some  other  mode  of  meet- 
ing the  demand,  besides  the  ordinary  school,  must  be 
devised.  This  is  one  of  the  local  difficulties  to  be  sur- 
mounted, at  which  I  formerly  hinted.  This  difficulty 
may  prove  less  formidable  than  I  have  supposed.  I  pre- 
sume it  to  exist,  however,  to  a  considerable  extent.  And 
in  endeavouring  to  provide  for  such  an  exigency,  I*  hope 
to  suggest  some  considerations  which  may  not  be  irrele- 
vant to  the  condition  and  wants  even  of  those  who  are, 
in  this  respect,  more  fortunately  situated. 

The  first  and  most  important  acquisition  which  a  child 
ever  makes,  next  to  that  of  articulate  speech,  is  the  art 
of  reading.  The  second,  in  importance,  is  writing  :  and 
the  third,  is  the  knowledge  of  figures  or  common  arith- 
metic. It  is  certainly  desirable  that  all  our  youth  of 
both  sexes  should  be  instructed  in  these  three  useful  arts 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  461 

at  the  least.  But,  in  no  case,  ought  a  child  to  be  suifered 
to  grow  up  amongst  us  without  being  taught  to  read. 
Can  this  be  done  without  public  schools  ?  I  believe  it 
may :  and  I  will  tell  you  how.  If,  in  any  family,  there 
be  one  individual  w^ho  can  read,  that  individual  could, 
without  serious  interruption  or  detriment  to  any  ordinary 
occupation,  teach  all  the  other  members  of  said  family, 
old  and  young,  to  read  also.  If,  in  every  settlement  or 
vicinage,  consisting  of  a  dozen  or  twenty  individuals  or 
families,  there  be  one  who  could  read,  that  one  could 
teach  all  the  others  in  like  manner  to  read.  Let  volun- 
tary associations  or  classes,  of  from  six  to  twenty  per- 
sons, (the  members,  for  instance,  of  one  family  or  of 
several  contiguous  families,)  be  formed;  and  let  them 
agree  to  meet  t^\'ice  or  thrice  a  week,  for  one  or  two 
hours,  as  their  numbers  or  convenience  may  suggest, — 
to  learn  to  read.  And  not  many  weeks  or  months  will 
elapse  before  all  shall  be  readers. 

In  order  to  learn  to  read,  it  is  by  no  means  indispensa- 
ble that  the  tedious  everlasting  method  of  the  schools  for 
children  should  be  adopted.  The  process  may  be  ren- 
dered extremely  simple  and  easy.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
commence  even  with  the  alphabet,  or  to  go  through  a 
course  of  spelling  in  Dilworth  or  Webster.  Adults  have 
been  recentl}-  taught  to  read  in  penitentiaries  and  else- 
where, in  a  very  short  period — even  within  one  or  two 
weeks,  in  some  cases — who  previously  did  not  know  a 
letter.  The  chaplain  or  teacher  opens  his  Bible — directs 
the  eye  of  his  pupil  to  the  first  verse  of  the  first  chapter 
—reads  it  distinctly — points  out  each  ?ro?Y7  to  the  learner, 


462  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

and  makes  him  repeat  it — and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the 
verse.  In  a  few  minutes  the  pupil  can  read  the  verse 
backwards  or  forwards.  He  now  knows  the  words  by 
their  i^liasis  or  appearance  in  the  book.  Here,  perhaps, 
the  teacher  stops  awhile,  and  analyzes  a  word,  naming 
each  letter  according  to  its  proper  sound — and  presently 
the  pupil  will  distinguish  and  name  the  letters  also. 
They  then  proceed  to  another  verse,  and  to  another : 
and,  by  and  by,  the  division  of  words  into  syllables  is 
explained  —  or  the  syllabic  analysis  may  precede  the 
alphabetical — and  thus  the  whole  mystery  of  learning  to 
read  is  dispelled ;  and  it  becomes  an  aftair  of  a  few  days 
or  hours.  K  convicts  in  a  penitentiary,  who  are  com- 
pelled to  labour  from  morning  to  night,  and  to  be  shut 
up  in  solitary  cells  from  sundown  till  daylight,  can  find 
time  to  acquire,  from  the  lips  of  charity,  so  invaluable 
an  art :  will  it  be  pretended  that  our  free  and  happy 
labourers  could  not  spare  time  for  the  same  purpose  ? 
And  will  none  among  themselves  be  willing  to  officiate 
as  guides  ? 

That  all  this,  and  more,  is  practicable,  is  perfectly 
known  from  well-authenticated  facts  officially  before  the 
public — from  the  testimony  of  scores  of  our  contempo- 
raries and  countrymen,  grounded  upon  their  own  obser- 
vation and  experience.  Many  children  have  also  been 
taught  to  read  in  this  manner  by  individuals  who  have 
never  heard  of  M.  Jacotot — and  long  before  he  was  born. 
By  him,  indeed,  the  method,  with  certain  modifications, 
has  been  announced  to  the  world  as  a  grand  discovery; 
and  it  constitutes  the  first  stage  in  the  process  of  his  in- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  463 

genioiis  and  greatly  admired  system  of  instruction.  Let 
every  teacher,  however,  do  the  best  he  can.  Let  him 
adapt  his  mode  of  instruction  to  the  circumstances  of  his 
pupils.  He  will  succeed,  upon  any  plan,  within  some 
three  or  six  months,  in  teaching  his  class  or  company  to 
read.  Were  such  a  system  to  be  put  immediately  and 
universally  into  operation  in  Tennessee,  there  would  not 
be  an  individual,  between  the  ages  of  six  and  fourscore, 
incapable  of  reading,  at  the  end  of  a  year,  throughout 
the  State.  Not  a  dollar  is  wanted  for  the  purpose.  Any 
books  will  answer.  Any  place  will  do.  Any  hour  of 
any  day  or  evening  will  suffice.  Now,  if  there  be  but 
one  intelligent,  patriotic,  benevolent  individual  in  each 
district,  town  or  county,  who  will  undertake  to  enlighten 
the  people  on  this  subject,  and  persuade  them  to  co-ope- 
rate in  this  good  work  of  self-instruction,  it  will  be 
speedily  accomplished.  Sunday  schools  judiciously  con- 
ducted, in  all  parts  of  the  country,  w^ould  certainly  and 
easily  effect  the  same  object. 

Writing  and  arithmetic  may  be  taught  in  the  same 
way.  And  in  general,  whatever  the  teacher  knows,  he 
can  communicate.  Or,  in  other  words,  whatever  is 
known  by  any  member  of  a  class  or  association  may  be 
possessed  by  all.  But  as  I  wish  to  avoid  minute  or 
prolix  details,  I  shall  proceed  no  further  in  the  develop- 
ment of  this  voluntary,  mutual,  self-teaching  system: 
being  confident  that  wherever  it  is  attempted  merely  in 
reference  to  reading,  it  will  be  amplified  and  extended, 
as  occasion  may  require.     Our  city  and  village  Lyceums 


464  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

are,  in  fact,  but  a  higher  order  or  degree  of  the "  same 
species  of  liberal,  gratuitous,  mutual  instruction. 

To  distinguish  this  from  the  common  school  system,  I 
have  heretofore,  on  divers  occasions,  denominated  it  the 
Social  or  Domestic  system  of  education.  And  while  it 
seems  singularly  adapted  to  the  wants  and  condition  of 
the  great  mass  of  the  poor  and  ignorant,  the  wealthier 
and  more  cultivated  classes  may  avail  themselves  of  its 
benefits  also.  Might  not  the  domestic  system,  in  its 
strictest  sense,  be  made  to  supersede  the  public  common 
school  system  altogether?  Why  should  a  little  child 
ever  be  sent  to  school,  who  has  a  mother  at  home  capa- 
ble of  teaching?  A  mother  who  can  teach,  and  who 
possesses  the  genuine  spirit  of  maternit}',  is  always  the 
best  possible  instructress  for  her  children,  until  they 
reach  the  age  of  eight  or  ten  or  twelve.  She  can  teach 
them  all  that  is  expected  from  a  common  school  infi- 
nitely better  than  any  schoolmaster.  This  she  might  do 
without  interfering  with  the  business  or  comforts  of  a 
well  ordered  domestic  establishment.  Children  ought 
never  to  be  closely  confined  at  an  age  when  they  cannot 
study.  Do  young  children  stmhj  while  constrained  to 
sit,  book  in  hand,  through  fear  of  the  birch,  during  six 
long  hours,  upon  the  bench  (and  such  a  hencli  I)  at  school  ? 
They  have  not  yet  learned  hoio  to  study :  and,  of  course, 
must  either  go  to  sleep,  or  passively  submit  to  the  daily 
irksome  and  stupifying  penance  of  doing  nothing.  At 
home  and  under  the  eye  of  their  mother,  they  can  play 
or  work  or  receive  instruction,  as  she  directs,  and  as  best 
suits  their  years,  capacit}-  and  disposition.     How  much 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  4G5 

misery  and  vice  and  mischief  and  vexation  of  all  sorts 
might  not  thus  be  happily  escaped  ?  What  a  generous 
ardent  love  of  knowledge  might  not  thus  too  be  excited 
and  cherished?  instead  of  that  dogged  indifference  or 
unconquerable  aversion  to  letters  so  frequently  evinced 
by  boys,  after  a  brief  trial  of  the  ordinary  school  dis- 
cipline ?  And  who  so  fit  as  a  pious  mother  to  instil  into 
the  heart  of  her  child  the  purest  principles  of  virtue  and 
religion  ? 

By  far  the  larger  proportion  of  schools  for  boys  under 
twelve  years  of  age,  with  which  I  have  been  acquainted 
in  the  course  of  my  life,  I  would  not  hesitate  to  denounce 
as  nuisances  and  impositions.  I  have  seen  them  in  every 
part  of  our  country  from  Maine  to  Tennessee :  and  I  feel 
confident  that  most  parents  might,  if  they  would,  form 
a  domestic  school  at  home,  a  thousand  fold  preferable  to 
ninetjMiine  out  of  a  hundred,  on  an  average,  of  the 
whole  number  of  common  schools  in  the  United  States  at 
this  moment.  Such  has  been  my  honest,  deliberate  and 
avowed  opinion  for  many  years  past.  And  that  this 
project  of  domestic  education  is  not  an  idle  day-dream  or 
visionary  speculation,  may  be  learned  from  the  following 
statement,  made  by  Doctor  Henderson  respecting  Iceland, 
which  he  had  then  recently  visited,  and  whose  work  has 
been  for  several  years  past  before  the  public,  and  is  well 
known. 

"  On  inquiring  (says  he)  into  the  state  of  mental  cul- 
tivation in  Iceland,  we  are  struck  wdth  the  universal  dif- 
fusion of  the  general  principles  of  knowledge  among  its 
inhabitants.     Though  there  be  only  one  school  in  Ice- 

VOL.  I.  30 


466  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

land,  and  that  solitary  school  is  exclusively  designed  for 
the  education  of  such  as  are  afterwards  to  fill  offices  in 
church  or  state ;  yet,  it  is  exceedingly  rare  to  meet  with 
a  boy  or  girl,  who  has  attained  the  age  of  nine  or  ten 
years,  that  cannot  read  and  write  with  ease.  Domestic 
education  is  most  rigidly  attended  to;  and  I  scarcely 
ever  recollect  entering  a  hut,  where  I  did  not  find  some 
individual  or  another,  capable  of  entering  into  conversa- 
tion with  me  on  topics  which  would  be  reckoned  altoge- 
ther above  the  understandings  of  people  in  the  same 
rank  of  society  in  other  countries  of  Europe."  Here  it 
is  worthy  of  special  remark,  that  the  only  public  school 
in  Iceland  is  the  University!  The  great  mass  of  the 
children  are  taught  by  parents  at  home :  and  common  or 
primar}^  schools  are  unknown  among  them. 

In  further  proof  that  my  general  estimate  of  common 
schools  is  not  unsupported  by  high  authority,  I  cite  the 
following  passage  from  the  late  Governor  Clinton's  Mes- 
sao-e  to  the  Legislature  of  New  York  in  1826.  "In  the 
first  place,  there  is  no  provision  made  for  the  education 
of  competent  instructors:  of  the  eight  thousand  now 
employed  in  this  State,  too  many  are  destitute  of  the 
requisite  qualifications,  and  perhaps  no  considerable 
number  are  able  to  teach  be3'ond  rudimental  instruction. 
Ten  3'ears  of  a  child's  life,  from  five  to  fifteen,  maj^  be 
spent  in  a  common  school :  and  ought  this  immense  por- 
tion of  time  to  be  absorbed  in  learning  what  can  be 
acquired  in  a  shorter  period?  Perhaps  one-fourth  of 
our  population  is  annually  instructed  in  our  common 
schools ;  and  ought  the  minds  and  morals  of  the  rising 


EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES.  467 

generations  to  be  intrusted  to  the  guardianship  of  incom- 
petence ?  The  scale  of  instruction  must  be  elevated : 
the  standard  of  education  ought  to  be  raised :  and  a  cen- 
tral school  on  the  monitorial  plan  ought  to  be  established 
in  each  county  for  the  education  of  teachers,  and  as 
exemplars  for  other  momentous  purposes,  connected  with 
the  improvement  of  the  human  mind." 

Should  the  social  and  domestic  system  be  adopted  in 
Tennessee,  so  far  as  to  enable  all  persons  to  read,  and 
many  to  write  and  keep  accounts,  then  a  large  proportion 
of  our  people  would  be  educated  to  as  great  an  extent 
as  is  now  practicable  in  most  common  schools :  and  none 
would  be  destitute  of  the  means  of  indefinite  intellectual 
improvement.  Teach  all  to  read,  and  multitudes,  with 
this  humble  outfit,  would  find  or  create  a  path  to  the 
richest  stores  of  knowledge.  But  we  ought  not  to  stop 
here ;  nor  rest  satisfied  with  what  may  be  acquired  at 
home,  or  from  the  voluntary  aid  of  friends  and  neigh- 
bors. A  little  learning  is  better  than  none,  and  is  never 
dangerous  except  when  mistaken  for  a  great  deal :  or 
when  perverted  and  applied  to  unworthy  purposes.  But, 
with  a  Utile,  we  are  not  to  be  content,  if  it  be  possible  to 
enlarge  it.  We  must  still  have  public  schools.  If  chil- 
dren, however,  when  they  begin  to  go  to  school,  can 
read,  and,  in  many  instances,  write  and  cypher  also ;  it 
is  obvious  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  establish  a  totally 
different  species  of  common  schools  from  those  which 
now  exist  among  us.  As  many  would  be  content  with 
the  instructions  of  the  social  or  domestic  school,  fewer 
public  schools  would  then  suffice  :  and  these  compara- 


468  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

tively  few  might  be  made  of  a  very  superior  order.'  In 
them  might  be  taught  all  the  useful  and  ornamental 
branches  of  an  English  education,  which  are  now  re- 
stricted to  the  High  School  or  College. 

In  most  of  the  States  where  a  legal  provision  is  made 
for  the  support  of  common  schools,  the  privilege  of  at- 
tendance is  limited  to  pupils  between  the  ages  of  four  or 
five  and  sixteen.  Now,  will  any  mortal  pretend  that  it 
is  necessary  to  be  at  school  ten  or  a  dozen  years  to  learn 
what  is  usually  taught  in  our  common  schools  ?  The 
whole  might,  by  a  judicious  and  skilful  teacher,  be  taught 
in  one  year — or,  at  most,  in  two  or  three.  In  our  ordi- 
nary academies  too,  seven  precious  years  are  wasted  in 
picking  up  a  wretched  smattering  of  Greek  and  Latin, 
wherewith  to  enact  the  pedant,  and  thereby  expose  to 
scorn  and  ridicule  the  very  name  of  classic  literature ; 
or  in  imbibing  towards  it  a  spirit  of  relentless  and  em- 
bittered hostility.  Whereas,  all  that  a  youth  needs  from 
a  teacher,  and  a  hundredfold  more  than  he  commonly 
gets,  might  be  acquired  in  less  than  half  the  time — toge- 
ther with  a  taste  for  classical  studies  which  would  be 
cherished  and  cultivated  to  the  end  of  life. 

Great  and  successful  efforts  are  now  making,  in  various 
parts  of  our  country,  to  elevate  the  character  of  common 
English  schools,  as  well  as  of  all  the  higher  seminaries. 
This  is  an  object  well  worthy  the  serious  attention  of 
the  patriot  and  philanthropist. 

The  intelligent  public  are  aware  that  much  has  been 
done  also  towards  improving  the  methods  of  instruction, 
in  all   its    stages,  and   in  every  department   of  every 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  469 

species  of  school  or  college.  Education  itself  has  become 
a  science :  and  it  deserves  the  most  profound  study  of  all 
who  wish  to  be  esteemed  skilful  and  thorough  educators. 
It  is  well  known  that  Edgeworth,  Bell,  Lancaster,  Pes- 
talozzi,  Fellenberg,  Jardine,  Pillans,  Dufief,  Lasteyrie, 
Degerando,  Wilderspin,  Hamilton,  Harnisch,  Jacotot, 
Brougham,  and  others,  have,  in  our  times,  been  zealously 
labouring  to  benefit  the  world  by  their  experiments  and 
publications  on  this  subject. 

Education,  indeed,  is  a  topic  about  which  everybody 
feels  competent  to  speculate  and  to  dogmatize — while 
few  comprehend  the  nature  or  philosophy  of  the  process. 
Men  who  have  had  much  experience  in  the  business  of 
instruction,  might,  in  general,  be  presumed  to  know 
rather  more  about  it  than  those  who  have  never  made 
the  attempt.  At  this  particular  time,  the  cause  of  edu- 
cation seems  to  attract  universal  attention :  and  almost 
every  tyro  fancies  that  he  can  enlighten  the  world  upon 
this  commonplace  and  yet  all-absorbing  theme. 

Whether  the  Greeks  and  Romans  were  novices  in  this 
art,  will  be  best  ascertained  by  recurring  to  the  pages  of 
their  own  historians,  and  to  the  monuments  of  classic 
genius  and  literature  which  still  command  the  admira- 
tion of  mankind.  Whether  we  can  hope  to  train,  by 
any  novel  machinery,  greater  and  wiser  men  and  women 
than  grace  the  annals  of  our  English  ancestry  or  our 
own  revolutionary  epoch,  may  be  shrewdly  questioned. 
I  am,  however,  the  advocate  of  improvement  in  every 
thing.  I  do  not  subscribe  to  the  doctrine :  '  let  well 
enough  alone;'    provided   the   said  well  cnourjh   can  be 


470  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

made  better.  But  innovation  is  not  always  improve- 
ment. In  every  revolutionary  period,  novelty  is  liable 
to  be  mistaken  for  amelioration.  This  is  the  revolution- 
ary crisis  of  education.  Men's  heads  are  teeming  with 
Utopian  projects  and  fantasies  of  reform  :  and  the  pre- 
sent speaker  may  possibly  be  numbered  among  the  vain 
schemers  of  the  times,  by  those  who  are  religiously 
wedded  to  the  good  old  w^ays  of  their  venerated  grand- 
sires. 

I  have  not  been  able,  however,  to  discover  in  any  of 
the  authors  already  named,  much  that  is  really  useful, 
which  had  not  been  previously  and  forcibly  exhibited  in 
the  pages  of  Montaigne,  Comenius,  Cowley,  Carew,  As- 
cham.  Bacon,  Locke,  Milton,  Fenelon,  Dumarsais,  Tana- 
quil  Faber,  Bossuet,  Low^e,  Clarke,  J.  T.  Philipps, 
D'Alembert,  Condillac,  and  others  of  a  preceding  gene- 
ration. And  whether  these  have  added  much  to  the 
science  or  art  of  education,  as  unfolded  by  a  still  more 
ancient  school  —  by  the  Quinctilians  and  Ciceros  and 
Xenophons  and  Aristotles  and  Solomons  of  Rome  and 
Greece  and  Judea — may  also  admit  of  question.  I  am 
not  sure  that  even  our  modern  Bacons  and  Lockes  and 
Miltons  are  entitled  to  higher  praise  than  that  of  mo- 
destly following  in  the  orbit  of  the  great  luminaries  just 
cited. 

But  however  wdse  men  may  speculate  about  systems 
or  modes  of  education  or  about  modern  improvements  in 
the  art,  in  one  most  essential  point  they  all  agree.  And 
this  one  point  involves  the  whole  mystery  or  philosophy 
of  education  under  every  rational  system.     No  man  can 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  471 

teaclL  what  lie  does  not  himself  anderstand. — Every  man 
can  teach,  if  he  icill,  what  he  does  perfectly  understand. 
The  teacher  then  must  be  able  and  willing,  or  apt  to 
teach.  He  must  possess  the  requisite  intellectual  furni- 
ture, and  also  moral  principle — or  he  cannot  be  trust- 
worthy. He  must  be  able  to  do  the  work,  and  he  must 
also  love  the  work. 

Thus,  for  instance,  no  man  can  teach  Greek,  who 
knows  nothing  of  Greek.  Here  is  the  real  secret,  by 
the  way,  of  the  general  antipathy  manifested  by  our 
Western  youth  towards  Greek.  They  hear  it  denounced 
and  ridiculed — and  they  ridicule  and  denounce  it — as 
useless  or  unlearnable  or  both, — because  they  have  never 
been  (might  it.  Now  Greek  is  just  as  easily  taught,  and 
may  be  just  as  easily  learned,  as  any  other  language — 
provided  the  master  understands  his  business.  If  our 
classical  schools  had  thorough  first  rate  Greek  scholars 
at  their  head,  no  such  complaint  would  ever  be  uttered. 
Boys  would  learn  Greek  as  readily  and  as  cheerfully  as 
they  learn  English.  Our  country  is  filled  to  overflowing 
with  adventurous  Greeldings.  But  where  are  our  Gre- 
cians ?  They  do  not  come  to  us  from  the  far  East — nor 
can  they  be  found  there.  Not  one  in  a  hundred  of  our 
American  Greek  professors  or  linguists  would  dare  to 
encounter  the  shades  of  a  Busby,  a  Bentley,  a  Porson,  a 
Parr,  a  Burney,  a  Gesner,  a  Heyne,  a  Wolfius,  a  Hem- 
sterhusius,  a  Wyttenbach,  or  of  any  one  of  the  mighty 
phalanx  of  Euro^Dean  literary  giants,  who  have  been  the 
delight  and  the  terror  of  their  day  and  generation. 
Happy,  thrice  happy  would  it  be  for  the  Common wealtli. 


472  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

if  a  legislative  veto  could  be  imposed,  on  this  species  of 
most  villanous  charlatanry — by  which  our  pockets  are 
picked,  our  understandings  insulted,  and  the  admission 
of  our  children  to  the  classic  groves  of  Academus  eftect- 
ually  precluded. 

Supposing  the  teacher  to  be  duly  qualified — and  of 
course  both  judicious  and  sagacious — he  will  adapt  his 
instructions  to  the  age,  capacity  and  actual  attainments 
of  his  pupils.  He  will  act  towards  them  as  a  skilful 
physician  does  towards  his  patients.  One  uniform  pre- 
scription will  not  answer  for  every  age  and  habit  and 
constitution.  The  systems  and  methods  of  others  he 
will  not  despise.  He  will  not  servilely  tread  in  the 
footsteps  of  his  predecessors; — nor  strike  out  a  new 
path  merel}^  for  the  sake  of  novelty  or  from  an  aifecta- 
tion  of  singularity.  His  aim  will  be  to  communicate 
instruction  in  the  most  expeditious  and  effectual  manner. 
He  will  borrow  light  and  information  from  every  quarter 
— will  combine  the  good  properties,  as  far  as  practicable, 
of  all  the  known  systems — and  yet  will  teach  in  a  man- 
ner peculiar  to  himself  He  wdll  constrain  his  pupils  to 
love  their  studies.  He  will  make  it  their  delight  to 
advance  in  knowledge  and  wisdom.  And  (as  Milton 
has  it)  will  insensibly  lead  them  up  the  hill- side  of 
science,  usually  indeed  laborious  and  difficult  at  the 
first  ascent,  but  under  his  kindly  guidance,  will  appear 
so  smooth,  so  green,  so  full  of  goodly  prospect  and 
melodious  sounds  on  every  side,  that  the  harp  of  Or- 
pheus could  not  be  more  charming. 

To  furnish  an  adequate  supply  of  gifted  teachers — 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  473 

to  induce  men  of  the  highest  order  of  genius  and  talent 
to  become  teachers — should  be  the  policy  of  every  wise 
paternal  government.  The  profession  ought  to  be  among 
the  most  honoural^le — and  in  order  to  this,  among  the 
most  lucrative — in  the  land.  Our  statesmen,  judges, 
governors  —  our  lawyers,  physicians,  divines  —  are  all 
formed  by  the  school  and  university.  And  if  we  expect 
the  former  to  be  enlightened  and  faitliful,  we  must  make 
the  latter  as  nearly  perfect  as  possible. — The  principal 
officer  or  commander-in-chief  of  every  great  literary 
institution  or  seminary  for  juvenile  instruction,  ought 
to  possess  a  large  measure  of  the  wisdom  of  Solomon, 
the  learning  of  Selden,  and  the  patience  of  Job.  But 
no  man  of  superior  intellect  and  lofty  aspiring  will  ever 
look  forward  to  the  occupation  of  the  schoolmaster  as  a 
profession  to  live  by — while  greater  consideration  and 
better  pecuniary  recompense  await  him  as  a  politician  or 
lawyer.  The  fault  is  in  the  very  structure  of  our  society. 
The  thorough  education  of  our  children  is  a  matter  of 
secondary  or  trivial  moment — and  we  grudge  every 
dollar  that  it  costs  us.  Were  a  good  education  uni- 
versally esteemed  the  most  desirable  object  of  human 
ambition,  as  it  ought  to  be — the  people  would  be  willing 
to  pay  for  it.  And  accomplished  teachers  would  be 
instantly  forthcoming.  Create  a  demand,  and  a  sui> 
ply  will  follow.  Talent,  like  the  diamond,  will  seek 
the  best  market. 

Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  were  the  master  spirits  and 
the  master  pedagogues  of  Greece — and  their  illustrious 
disciples  did  honour  to  their  schooling.     Give  us  such 


4T4  EDUCATIONAL    DISpOURSES. 

a  constellation  of  glorious  intellect — refined  and-  puri- 
fied by  Christian  ethics — elevated  and  expanded  by 
Christian  hope  and  Christian  charity — and  the  Ilej)ub- 
lic  shall  live  forever. 

Suppose  each  county  in  the  State  to  be  divided  into  a 
convenient  number  of  school  districts,  and  a  good  com- 
mon school  to  be  duly  organized  and  maintained  in  each 
district:  suppose  each  county  to  contain  one  or  more 
well-conducted  classical  schools  or  academies:  suppose 
the  State  to  be  provided  with  a  first-rate  university  or 
with  several  excellent  colleges :  Then  let  the  poor  chil- 
dren, boys  and  girls,  be  all  taught  gratuitousl}^  in  the 
common  schools  whatever  can  be  learned  in  such  schools : 
let  a  certain  fixed  number  of  the  best  behaved,  most 
talented  and  studious  boys  be  selected  from  each  of  the 
common  schools,  by  competent  judges  appointed  for  the 
purpose,  and  sent  to  the  academy  at  the  public  expense : 
In  due  time,  again,  select  from  these,  in  like  manner, 
a  certain  proportion  to  be  educated  at  the  college  or 
university.  Such  a  system  would  directly  benefit  the 
entire  population,  and  especially  the  whole  poor  of  the 
State ;  and  would  ensure  a  liberal  education  to  the  most 
gifted  and  meritorious  of  our  poor  youth.  This  is  an- 
other obvious  and  practicaljle  mode  of  diffusing  the  bene- 
fits of  every  species  and  degree  of  education  among  the 
most  indigent  and  neglected  classes  of  the  community. 
Why  should  it  not  find  favour  with  the  legal  guardians 
and  professed  champions  of  the  poor?  Why  denounce 
the  higher  seminaries  as  unfriendly  to  the  poor,  while 
no  effort  is  made  to  render  them  the  greatest  possible 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  475 

blessings  to  the  poor?  Nearly  all  the  great  men  in  this 
nation  and  in  the  world  have  risen  from  the  humblest 
ranks;  and  chiefly  through  the  agency  of  the  college, 
directly  or  indirectly.  But  such  a  result  is  seldom  or 
never  realized,  except  where  especial  provision  is  made 
for  poor  scholars.  The  poor  youth  of  Tennessee  can 
never  hope  for  such  facilities  and  advantages  from  the 
colleges  of  other  States. 

A  distinguished  German  divine,  towards  the  close  of 
the  16tli  century,  thus  quaintly  expressed  himself,  in 
"a  sermon  directed  against  those  who  said  that  high 
schools  were  of  no  use:  "Such  thoughts  come  from 
the  suggestion  of  Satan  himself,  who  is  an  enemy  to 
schools.  K  there  were  no  high  schools,  the  stronger  would 
put  the  weaker  in  a  sack,  and  there  would  be  no  end  of 
this  till  people  ate  one  another  up.  Head-law,  and  not 
fist4aw,  must  govern  the  world ;  but  then  men  of  learn- 
ing do  not  grow  on  the  trees,  so  that  one  has  only  to 
shake  them  down,  and,  with  reverence  be  it  sjDoken,  put 
a  pair  of  boots  below  for  them  to  fall  into." 

I  have  so  frequently  advocated  the  cause  of  education, 
in  reference  to  every  class  and  description  of  my  fellow- 
citizens,  that  I  cannot  hope,  on  this  occasion,  to  command 
attention  by  the  mere  novelty  of  argument  or  illustra- 
tion. I  rely  solely  on  the  importance  and  truth  of  my 
positions,  and  upon  the  universal  application,  for  even  a 
patient  hearing.  I  have  often  pointed  out  the  evils 
resulting,  or  likely  to  result,  from  an  illiberal  hostility 
to  colleges  and  professional  seminaries:  and  I  have 
demonstrated  that   the  people  at   large  must  ever   be 


476  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

wronged  and  oppressed  by  such  a  policy.  If  we  have 
no  great  literary  institutions  of  our  own,  still  some  of 
our  opulent  youth  will  find  their  way  to  distant  institu- 
tions; or  educated  individuals  will  come  to  us  from 
other  States  or  from  foreign  lands;  and  thus  we  shall 
have  among  us  a  sufficient  number  of  comparatively 
intelligent  persons,  at  least  to  monopolize  the  profits  and 
emoluments  of  professional  and  official  stations,  and  to 
control  the  popular  sentiment  for  their  own  special  bene- 
fit. I  need  hardly  stop  to  expose  the  dangerous  ten- 
dency of  such  a  monopoly.  It  is  virtually  vesting  all 
power  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  accords  much  better 
with  the  genius  of  despotism  than  of  democracy.  The 
Grand  Turk  and  the  Russian  Czar  have  long  since 
adopted  this  verj-  system.  They  choose  to  have  about 
them  some  eminently  learned  and  accomplished  ministers 
to  do  their  bidding — to  aid  in  sustaining  their  dignity 
and  in  executing  their  arbitrary  measures.  Without  them 
indeed,  their  crowns  and  thrones  would  speedily  pass  into 
other  hands.  They  know  full  well  that  knowledge  is 
power :  and  that  mere  brute  force  can  never  be  skilfully 
directed  or  successfully  employed  without  it. 

It  is  evident  that  the  common  schools  will  not  suffice 
to  educate  the  governing  mind  of  anj^  civilized  empire, 
kingdom,  or  republic.  These  will  but  prepare  the  peo- 
ple to  be  the  more  easily  managed  and  imposed  on  by 
the  specious  sophistry  and  selfish  cunning  of  the  more 
intelligent  and  ambitious  few.  The  question  with  us 
is  not,  how  much  or  what  kind  of  learning  will  qualify 
a  man  to  be  a  decent  farmer  or  merchant  or  mechanic  ? 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  477 

But  what  will  enaljle  the  fanner  and  mechanic  to  become 
the  most  useful  and  influential  citizens — to  constitute  in 
fact  the  governing  mind  of  the  Commonwealth  ?  Clearly, 
if  they  aspire  to  the  government  of  the  State,  they  must 
become  the  most  enlightened  body  in  the  State.  Even 
upon  the  hypothesis  that  much  learning  is  dangerous  or 
pernicious — that  it  is  apt  to  render  men  proud,  arrogant, 
overbearing,  knavish  or  aristocratic — still,  so  long  as  its 
possessors  will  contrive,  by  means  foul  or  fair,  to  usurp  or 
engross  all  the  prerogatives  of  sovereignty — the  farmer 
and  mechanic  must  learn  to  wield  this  verj^  dangerous 
but  most  potent  engine,  or  tamely  yield  the  sovereignty 
to  their  wily  superiors.     They,  too,  must  go  to  college. 

I  have  been  pleading  the  cause  of  our  flirmers  and 
mechanics  for  some  dozen  years  past.  Because,  upon 
them,  as  enhghtened,  judicious,  independent,  patriotic 
citizens,  depend  the  destinies  of  this  Republic.  The 
question,  I  again  repeat,  is,  shall  they  lead  or  be  led  ? 
Shall  they  arrest  and  put  down  the  factious  spirit  of 
unprincipled  ambition  which  is  rife  and  running  riot  in 
the  land,  or  shall  they  blindly  lend  themselves  as  the 
instruments  and  the  victims  of  its  desperate  and  treason- 
able purposes?  The  crisis  has  arrived  when  the  people 
must  speak  and  act  wisely  and  resolutely,  or  their 
ability  to  speak  and  to  act  with  decisive  efficiency, 
will  be  lost  forever. 

I  care  not  where  or  how  they  acquire  the  requisite 
amount  of  intellectual  furniture,  so  that  it  be  acquired. 
If  they  can  and  will  create  and  uphold  institutions, 
suited  to  their  purpose,  superior  to  the  universit}^  and 


4  /  h  E  D  U  C  A  T  1 0  X  A  L     DISCOURSES. 

the  college — so  much  the  better.  But  let  them  not- be  de- 
luded by  the  fancy  that  common  schools  will  ever  insure 
to  them  or  their  children,  the  rank  and  influence  and 
power  which  their  numerical  strength  might  fairly  claim. 
They  will  be  priest-ridden,  and  lawyer-ridden,  and  doctor- 
ridden,  and  demagogue-ridden,  to  the  end  of  the  chapter 
of  human  perversity  and  chicanery,  if  they  continue  to 
pin  their  faith  upon  the  popular  scheme  of  elementary 
schools  to  the  neglect  of  all  superior  institutions.  Let 
me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  am  the  staunch  advocate  of 
every  species  of  grxd  common  schools,  and  of  every  prac- 
ticable plan  for  the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge  among 
the  people  —  whether  in  larger  or  smaller  measures  — 
whether  by  the  State  government  or  by  individual  effort 
and  munificence.  But  no  system  of  popular  education 
can  be  complete  or  efficient  or  permanently  successful, 
which  does  not  embrace  within  its  hberal  scope  the  college 
and  the  higher  sciences  as  well  as  the  common  school 
and  the  spelling  book.  I  would  not  exclude  the  farmers' 
sons  from  any  intellectual  cultivation  which  the  wisdom 
and  the  wealth  of  the  State  could  place  within  their 
reach.  I  would  bid  them  welcome  to  the  pri^dleges  and 
instructions  of  the  noblest  univer.sity  in  the  land.  Or 
rather,  I  would  create  a  university  for  this  verv'  purpose, 
which  should  be  second  to  none  in  the  world. 

In  population  and  political  influence,  Tennessee  al- 
ready ranks  among  the  most  important  members  of  the 
great  Federal  Union.  And  hitherto,  she  has  done  pre- 
cisely nothing  for  the  education  of  her  children,  either 
rich  or  poor — except  upon  paper.     About  thirty  years 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  479 

ago.  Congress  granted  one  hundred  thousand  acres  of 
hmd  for  the  endowment  of  two  colleges  within  her 
limits,  and  appointed  her  legislature  their  trustee  to 
locate  said  land  in  a  body,  and  to  sell  it  at  not  less 
than  two  dollars  per  acre;  and  thus  to  provide  a 
fund  of  at  least  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the 
support  of  the  two  colleges.  Had  the  legislature  ful- 
filled the  condition  of  this  sacred  trust,  in  good  faith,  the 
original  donation,  at  the  minimum  price  for  which  the 
land  was  to  be  sold,  would,  in  twenty-five  years,  at  six 
per  cent,  simple  interest,  have  amounted  to  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  To  this  day,  the  colleges  have  re- 
ceived little  or  nothing  from  the  avails  of  said  land. 
They  have  still  therefore  a  legal  right  to  the  whole  sum 
last  mentioned.  The  legislature  is  bound  by  every  prin- 
ciple of  honour  and  law  and  equity,  to  indemnify  the 
colleges  to  the  full  extent  of  the  injury  inflicted.  The 
very  best  thing  that  the  legislature  can  now  do  in  behalf 
of  popular  education  is,  forthwith,  to  perform  an  act  of 
simple  justice.  To  resolve,  namely,  to  pay  to  each  of 
the  colleges  two  hundred  and  fifty  tJiousand  dollars,  or 
an  annuity  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  to  each  forever. 
Virginia,  after  expending  half  a  million  of  dollars  upon 
the  edifices,  libraries,  and  apparatus  of  her  University, 
has  heretofore  appropriated,  and  has  agreed  to  appropriate 
in  future,  the  sum  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars  per  annum 
for  its  maintenance.  South  Carolina  has  been  equally 
liberal;  and  yet  neither  was  ever  assisted  by  Congress. 
vSeveral  of  the  States  have  done  much  more,  and  all  have 
done  something  for  their  colleges.    Tennessee  is  the  soli- 


480  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

tary  exception.  In  this  respect,  she  stands  alone  and 
unrivalled  among  her  peers.  She  is  the  only  civilized 
community  upon  the  globe,  which  occupies  so  enviable  a 
position — which  can  boast  the  singular  distinction  of  not 
only  neglecting  and  frowning  upon  her  colleges,  and  of 
never  having  bestowed  a  dollar  upon  one  of  them — but 
of  having  positively  withheld  from  them  the  charity  of 
strangers !  True,  the  legislature  is  but  the  creature  and 
servant  of  the  people,  and  must  do  their  pleasure.  And 
the  sovereign  people,  I  suppose,  like  other  arbitrary  and 
absolute  sovereigns,  can  do  no  wrong ;  or,  like  the  Pope, 
must  be  deemed  infallible.  So  much  for  the  colleges. 
The  academies,  with  an  equal  grant  of  land  from  Con- 
gress, have  been  dealt  with  after  the  same  equitable, 
royal,  popish,  summary  fashion. 

But  it  will  be  triumphantly  urged,  as  a  redeeming 
set-off  to  the  above,  that  much  has  been  done  and  is 
doing  for  common  schools.  [Which,  by  the  way,  be  it 
remembered,  are  designed  to  teach  nothing  more  than 
every  mother  is  or  ought  to  be  qualified  to  teach  much 
better  at  home.]  Yes,  truly,  a  vast  deal  of  legislation 
has  been  expended  upon  common  schools,  and  large 
sums  of  money  have  disappeared  from  the  public  trea- 
sury upon  this  service :  but  I  def\'  any  mortal  to  desig- 
nate the  school  or  the  child  which  has  received  the 
slightest  benefit  from  the  one  or  the  other.  Upon 
this  theme,  however,  it  is  useless  to  descant.  Every 
popular  folly  must  live  its  day  out.  A  mammoth 
school  fund  will  be  raised.  The  people  have  decreed 
it.     Their   lands    and    limbs,   their   bread   and   labour, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  481 

Avill  be  taxed  to  procure  it.  And  when  procured,  it 
will  regularly  pass  into  the  hands  of  honest  dismter- 
ested  school-agents  or  commissioners,  who  will  take  good 
care  of  it — or  it  will  get  into  the  vaults  of  some  favour- 
ite State  Bank  to  be  kindly  nursed  and  increased  for  the 
benefit  of  posterity — or  it  will  be  distributed  in  conve- 
nient loans  to  certain  trustworthy  citizens  who  live 
only  to  serve  the  public — and  finally  it  will  puzzle 
the  lawyers,  after  receiving  their  fees  from  every 
party  concerned,  to  discover  the  ivJiereahout  of  its 
actual  existence,  or  to  point  out  the  course  of  its  flight 
beyond  the  reach  of  legislative  control. 

Am  I  then  opposed  to  the  common  school  fund  system 
which  is  so  universally  approved  throughout  the  country  ? 
I  answer  again :  I  am  opposed  to  no  system  which  will 
insure  good  schools  or  valuable  instruction  to  the  people 
or  to  any  portion  of  the  people.  I  am  opposed  to  the 
system  of  doing  nothing.  I  am  opposed  to  the  system 
of  robbing  the  people  of  their  money  under  the  ludi- 
crous pretext  of  providing  for  the  education  of  their 
great-grandchildren's  children.  While  no  living  man's 
son  or  daughter  will  ever  be  taught  a  letter  of  the 
alphabet  or  the  difference  between  good  and  evil,  right 
and  wrong,  by  the  agency  of  any  school  fund  in  esse  or 
in  posse.  Reasoning  from  the  past  and  the  present,  I 
can  discern  nothing  in  the  signs  of  the  times  or  in  the 
tone  of  popular  morals  to  warrant  the  anticipation  of  a 
more  auspicious  result  for  the  future.  Greatly  should  I 
rejoice,  however,  at  any  evidence  or  indication  which 
might  justify  a  different  and  more  cheering  train   of 

VOL.  I.  31 


482  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

reflections;  or  which  might  be  calculated  to  inspire 
the  brightest  visions  of  hope  in  regard  to  the  existing 
and  each  successive  generation  of  my  countrymen. 

But,  another  hypothesis,  and  I  have  done.  If  the 
people  or  their  rulers  were  really  desirous  to  educate  the 
poor  children  of  the  State — why  not  do  it  instantly  and 
effectually?  If  none  of  the  modes  already  suggested 
should  be  acceptable,  yet  certainly  the  work  could  be 
done,  for  example,  in  the  same  manner  as  paupers  are 
fed  and  clothed  at  the  public  expense.  Let  each 
county  be  required  to  provide  for  the  adequate  in- 
struction of  its  own  poor  children,  just  as  it  provides 
for  the  comfortable  subsistence  of  its  poor  citizens. 
There  is  no  more  difficulty  in  the  one  case  than  in 
the  other.  Nor  would  the  burden  be  very  grievous. 
I  doubt  whether  ten  poor  children  can  be  found  in 
each  county,  upon  an  average,  whose  parents  or  relar 
tives  could  not  afford  them  a  common  school  education. 
I  will  undertake  to  teach,  at  my  own  cost,  all  the  poor 
children  of  Tennessee  not  fairly  included  in  the  number 
and  description  just  specified. 

I  had  intended  to  say  something  of  the  school  systems 
which  obtain  in  Scotland,  Sweden,  Holland,  Switzerland, 
Prussia,  and  the  smaller  German  States — but  I  forbear. 
Republican  America  may  however  learn  much,  even 
from  European  monarchies,  upon  this  vital  subject. 
And  it  would  be  quite  as  reputable,  to  say  the  least, 
to  follow  their  example  in  the  judicious  education  of 
our  children,  as  to  imitate  them  in  their  fashionable 
vices,  amusements  and  absurdities. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  483 

Of  our  own  humble  University,  it  is  not  my  purpose 
to  speak.  It  may  not  be  worth  your  notice.  I  shall 
certainly  not  pronounce  its  eulogium,  nor  recommend 
it  to  your  special  patronage  or  consideration.  It  has 
existed  during  the  brief  space  of  eleven  [now  thirteen] 
years.  Its  history,  if  fairly  told,  would  be  curious,  and 
not  altogether  devoid  of  instructive  incident.  But  it  is 
enough,  on  the  present  occasion,  to  be  able  to  announce, 
that,  under  the  good  providence  of  God,  it  has  survived 
the  hopes  and  fears  and  wishes  and  predictions  of  both 
friends  and  foes.  And  that  it  continues  to  exist,  in 
spite  of  untoward  circumstances  and  events— in  spite 
of  local  nuisances  and  unsightly  accommodations  —  in 
spite  of  poverty  and  injustice  — in  spite  of  ecclesiastical 
and  political  indifference  and  neglect  and  hostility — 
in  spite  of  all  sorts  of  misrepresentation  and  abuse  and 
opposition  from  all  sorts  of  people — in  spite  of  the  law- 
yers, and  clergy,  and  physicians,  and  merchants,  and 
farmers,  and  mechanics,  and  schoolmasters,  and  office- 
hunters  of  every  name  and  degree— in  spite  of  religious 
sectarian  jealousy,  fanaticism  and  intolerance — in  spite 
of  infidel  self-sufficiency  and  mawkish  sentimentality — 
in  spite  of  innovating  perfectionists  and  fault-finding 
purists — in  spite  of  whigs  and  tories,  democrats  and 
federaUsts,  nullifiers  and  consolidationists — in  spite  of 
Nashville  and  all  its  wicked  inhabitants — in  spite  of 
Tennessee  and  all  its  great  men  and  little  men — in  sj^ite 
of  the  Legislature  and  the  Trustees,  the  President  and 
the  Faculty — in  spite  of  the  Presbyterians,  high  church 
and  low,  old  school  and  new  —  in  spite  of  all  the  re- 


484  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

verend  bigots  and  dogmatists  and  would-be  popes,  of 
every  denomination,  in  the  Commonwealth: — ^^^es,  the 
hitherto  unbefriended  University  still  exists.  And,  if 
her  Alumni  choose  to  inscribe,  in  adamantine  capitals, 
upon  her  walls  of  granite  or  marble  yet  to  be  erected. 

EsTO   Perpetua! 
It  shall  exist  and  flourish  a  thousand  ages  after  toe  shall 
be  forgotten,  and  our  names  be  obliterated   from  the 
records  of  this  world's  glory  and  insignificance. 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS. 


[UNIVERSITY  OF  NASHVILLE,  OCTOBER  3.  1838.; 


BACCALAUREATE  ADDRESS 

AT  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  NASHVILLE,  OCTOBER  3,  1838. 


Having  completed  the  course  of  study  prescribed  by 
the  laws  of  this  Institution,  we  congratulate  you,  Young 
Gentlemen,  upon  the  arrival  of  this  auspicious,  and  by  you 
long  wished  for  day,  which  sunders  forever  your  college 
ties  and  associations.  About  to  enter  upon  a  new  scene 
of  study  and  of  action,  you,  doubtless,  with  the  elastic 
temperament  peculiar  to  youth,  anticipate  much,  very 
much,  from  the  fair  world  which  lies  before  you.  This 
is  natural:  and  we  cordially  mingle  our  sympathetic 
hopes  and  aspirations  with  yours,  while  we  fervently 
pray  that  you  may  never  be  disappointed. 

Would  you  learn  how  to  live,  so  as  certainly  to  escape 
disappointment?  This  is  an  inquiry  unspeakably  mo- 
mentous to  youth,  however  circumstanced;  and  espe- 
cially to  those  who  may  be  destmed  to  exert  a  more 
than  ordinary  influence  in  their  day  and  generation : — 
or  to  feel  themselves  more  acutely  than  others  the  morti- 
fication and  the  anguish  of  blighted  hopes,  and  the  fail- 
ure of  well  concerted  plans  and  persevering  labours. 

But  the  protracted  exercises  of  this  Anniversary  have 
already  preferred  so  large  a  demand  upon  the  indulgence 
of  our  respected  auditory,  that,  I  shall  be  readily  excused 

48T 


488  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

for  not  venturing  into  any  elaborate  details  or  formal 
discussions  on  this  or  any  other  topic.  Nor  is  it  necessary 
that  I  should.  For  all  the  lessons  and  counsels,  moral, 
religious,  economical,  literary  or  philosophical,  which  it 
would  be  in  my  power  to  impart,  have  been  communi- 
cated and  reiterated,  from  time  to  time,  in  the  familiar 
style  of  the  lecture  room,  while,  together,  we  have  ex- 
amined the  theories  and  speculations  of  the  wise  and 
good  of  diiferent  ages  and  schools,  or  scanned  the  mo- 
tives, principles  and  ends  of  human  conduct,  as  developed 
by  reason,  experience  and  revelation.  You  have  been 
directed  also  to  the  ablest  and  purest  sources  of  informa- 
tion ;  as  well  as  taught  to  investigate,  to  reflect  and  to 
judge  for  yourselves.  I  shall,  therefore,  trespass  but 
a  few  minutes  further  on  the  patience  of  my  hearers. 

When  I  contemplate  any  one  of  the  little  bands  of 
youth  which  annually  issue  from  our  colleges  into  every 
section  of  this  extensive  Republic,  it  is  impossible  for  me 
not  to  follow  them  in  imagination  into  the  busy  world 
and  to  trace  with  prophetic  pen  the  various  parts 
which  they  seem  likely  to  act  on  the  great  stage  of 
public  life. 

One,  on  whom  rests  the  meek,  gentle,  dovelike  spirit 
of  heavenly  wisdom,  bids  fair  to  become  an  eminent 
herald  of  the  cross — a  joyful  messenger  of  peace  to  a 
distracted  world — a  patient,  laborious,  faithful  minister 
of  reconciliation  to  the  guilty,  the  wretched  and  the 
perishing. 

Another  promises  to  adorn  religion  in  the  more  retired 
walks  of  private  life  : — Where,  by  his  holy  example,  by 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  489 

his  active,  unobtrusive  benevolence,  to  shed  a  lustre  on 
the  Christian  name,  and  to  inspire  peace  and  joy  into 
many  an  aching  bosom,  while  he  kindly  fosters  every 
institution  and  patronises  every  plan  which  is  calcu- 
lated to  meliorate  the  condition  of  suffering  humanity, 
and  to  promote  the  glorj-  of  his  Master's  name. 

Many  are  looking  forward  to  the  bar,  to  the  healing 
art,  to  the  army,  to  the  navy,  or  to  merchandise  as  their 
future  fields  of  enterprise  and  emolument: — but,  with 
what  views  and  motives  they  will  commence  and  prose- 
cute their  several  schemes  and  labours,  the  Searcher  of 
hearts  alone  can  know.  Paternal  affection  bids  them 
all,  God  speed — but  with  a  fearful  anxiety,  lest  some 
of  them  at  least  should  venture  to  go  forth  without  the 
divine  blessing  and  protection. 

One,  and  another  seems  likely  to  take  a  distinguished 
part  in  the  government  of  his  country,  perhaps  to  become 
a  leader  in  the  legislative  councils, — a  Senator — a  Judge 
^-or  even  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation — for  who 
shall  set  bounds  to  the  ambitious  aspirings  of  America's 
talented  and  privileged  sons?  —  With  what  trembling 
solicitude  does  the  tenderness  of  friendship  watch  his 
every  footstep,  and  mark  his  progress  towards  the  goal 
of  his  wishes !  "Will  he  be  the  stern,  uncompromising 
friend  of  virtue,  of  truth,  of  righteousness?  Will  he 
rule  in  the  fear  of  God?  Will  he  prove  a  benefactor  or 
a  scourge,  a  blessing  or  a  curse,  to  the  people  who  shall 
honour  him  with  their  confidence? 

But  I  behold  another, — not,  I  trust,  among  the  beloved 
pupils  here  before  me,  but  merely  in  mental  vision, — 


490  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

perhaps  a  young  man  of  native  genius  and  high  promise 
—  on  whom  parental  fondness  dotes — whose  departure 
from  sacred  home  to  the  venerable  temple  of  science  was 
the  occasion  of  many  a  fervent  prayer  to  Heaven  for  his 
welfare — who  received  a  kind  father  s  parting  benedic- 
tion and  a  weeping  mother's  sad  farewell  embrace,  with 
a  heart  melted  to  tenderness,  and  resolved  to  gratify 
their  every  wish.  I  behold  him  now,  after  an  absence 
of  a  few  months  or  years,  associating  with  the  licentious 
and  the  profane — neglecting  study  for  the  haunts  of  vice 
and  folly — sacrificing  his  precious  time  and  the  princi- 
ples of  virtue  with  wdiich  parental  piety  had  imbued  his 
once  susceptible  mind,  at  the  shrine  of  forbidden  pleasure 
— at  the  festive  board  of  intemperance — at  the  infernal 
table  of  the  gambler — and  subsiding  by  degrees  into  a 
state  of  habitual  sensuality  and  confirmed  skepticism! 
Is  this  a  spectacle  which  any  man,  wdiose  heart  is  not 
made  of  adamant,  can  contemplate  with  indifference? 

A  young  man,  the  pride  and  the  hope  of  his  family, 
standing,  as  it  were,  on  the  threshold  of  life,  and  just 
going  to  enter  upon  the  world's  wide  theatre — with 
libertine  principles  and  habits — with  a  hardihood  in 
vice  which  has  steeled  the  mind  and  seared  the  con- 
science against  every  good  impression — into  how  deep  a 
gulf  of  perdition  is  he  sinking?  With  what  awful  fore- 
bodings do  I  follow"  him  in  that  downward  career  which 
he  seems  determined  to  pursue !  Of  how  much  misery 
and  crime  may  he  not  yet  become  the  author?  How 
much  moral  devastation  may  he  spread  around  him 
in   society?     What  ruinous  and  abominable   principles 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  491 

may  he  one  day  disseminate?  How  many  innocent 
persons  may  his  seductive  example  and  insinuating 
manners  lead  astray  from  the  high  road  of  virtue 
and  peace — till  they  become  as  hardened  as  himself^ 
and  with  him,  sit  down  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful  there, 
with  united  efforts  and  augmented  wiles,  strive  to  ex- 
tend their  dominion  over  others  still — and  to  spread 
wide  the  tempting  and  decoying  net  to  catch  and  to  hold 
fast  the  unwary  and  unstable  wherever  they  can  be 
found? 

Will  he  become  the  apostle  of  infidelity — the  bold, 
active,  determmed  enemy  of  revelation — a  Voltaire, 
or  a  Paine?  Or  will  he  be  the  subtle,  systematic,  re- 
fined, philosophising  freethinker — a  Hobbes,  a  Tindal, 
a  Bolingbroke,  a  Hume  or  a  Gibbon?  Or  will  he  be 
content,  in  a  lower  sphere,  to  mdulge  in  all  the  vanity 
of  sensuaUty  and  riot — to  be  what  Rochester  and  Gardi- 
ner were,  before  the  grace  of  the  Highest  had  awakened 
them  from  their  delirium  of  profligacy,  and  reclaimed 
them,  when  on  the  verge  of  perdition — to  live,  at  once, 
a  warning  to  the  rake,  and  an  encouragement  to  the 
returning  prodigal? 

Can  he  be  destmed  for  any  great  offices  in  public  life? 
Yes — even  this  is  possible.  For  the  world  has  seen  the 
uifidel,  the  scoffer  and  the  libertme  elevated  to  posts  of 
honour  and  power — and  hailed  with  the  loudest  acclama- 
tions of  an  mfatuated  multitude. 

But  whatever  may  be  his  lot  in  life,  however  exalted, 
or  however  humble — he  must  have  mfluence  of  some 
kind.      The  veriest  vagabond  on  earth  is   scarcely  so 


492  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

degraded  as  to  be  unable  to  find  a  companion  who  may 
not  be  made  worse  by  his  agency  and  example.  He  has 
relations  and  friends  and  associates — and  among  these 
he  may  appear  even  respectable.  He  may  form  connec- 
tions, and  become  the  head  and  the  guide  of  a  family, 
which  will  look  to  him  with  affection  and  confidence  for 
counsel  and  direction. 

Where,  in  the  Universe,  is  the  benevolent  being  who 
would  not  be  constrained  to  say — better  were  it  for  this 
young  man,  better  for  his  friends,  better  for  society, 
better  for  future  generations,  that  he  had  never  been 
born,  than  thus  to  live,  a  curse  to  all  within  the  sphere 
of  his  contaminating  principles  and  example ! 

God  grant,  that  these  remarks  may  never  apply  to 
a  single  youth  who  has  heard  them  pronounced — much 
less  to  any  of  those  whom  I  directly  address. 

Do  you  wish  to  be  respected,  useful  and  happy  m  any 
profession  or  calhng  in  life,  whether  pubhc  or  private,  in 
the  Church  or  in  the  State  ?  Youth  is  the  golden  season 
to  prepare  for  it.  Lay  broad  and  deep  the  foundation 
now.  Let  religion — the  Christian  religion,  pure  and 
undefiled  —  be  the  comer-stone  on  which  the  whole 
edifice  shall  rest.  Aspire  with  a  noble  daring,  to  the 
loftiest  eminence.  But  let  religion  guide  you  in  every 
stage  of  3^our  progress,  and  influence  every  act  of  your 
lives,  and  consecrate  to  God  the  object  at  which  you  aim. 
This  is  the  only  kind  of  ambition  which  will  conduct 
you  to  true,  substantial  and  ever  enduring  greatness: 
and  preserve  you  from  those  cruel  disappointments 
which    drive    to   despair   so    many  of  the  unsuccessful 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  493 

candidates  for  Avorldly  honours  and  distinction.  For  if 
your  views  be  limited  exclusively  or  chiefly  to  this  world, 
you  will  assuredly  be  disappointed,  even  if  you  gain  the 
objects  which  you  covet,  and  after  which  you  strive  and 
labour  with  the  most  invincible  ardour,  resolution  and 
perseverance.  Like  Solomon,  in  the  midst  of  all  his 
wealth,  and  luxury,  and  splendour,  and  power,  and 
grandeur,  and  glory,  you  will,  with  an  aching  heart, 
inscribe  "vanity  of  vanities"  on  all  your  honours  and 
possessions.  Or  like  Alexander,  after  gathering  the 
laurels  of  a  hundred  victories,  sigh  for  other  worlds 
to  conquer.  Or  like  Grotius,  after  ranging  over  the 
rich  and  varied  fields  of  science  and  literature  in  search 
of  fame,  or  of  the  philosopher's  chief  good,  be  con- 
strained to  confess  that  you  have  wasted  life  in  labori- 
ous trifling.  "  Heu  vitam  perdidi  operose  nihil  agendo." 
Disappointment  will  meet  you,  sooner  or  later,  take 
what  course  you  may.  The  dearest  objects  of  your 
affections  may  be  torn  from  your  embrace,  or  converted 
into  instruments  of  unceasing  torture.  Your  idols  may 
be  dashed  in  pieces  before  your  eyes — and  the  fragments 
lie  scattered  around  joii, — the  ever  present  and  upbraid- 
ing mementos  of  your  disloyaltj'  to  heaven's  righteous 
King,  and  of  the  folly  of  every  earthly  pursuit  which 
does  not  subserve  the  great  end  of  your  probationary 
existence.  Sorrow  and  pain  and  anguish  and  bitterness 
of  spirit  will  be  yours,  in  spite  of  all  your  prudence, 
sagacity,  talents,  courage  and  integrity.  To  the  wicked 
there  is  no  peace.  To  the  enemy  of  God  there  can  be- 
no  permanent  prosperity.     To  the  votary  of  this  world. 


494  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

ill  an}'  of  its  ten  thousand  alluring  forms,  there  is  or- 
dained inevitable  disappointment.  Ever^^  sublunary  good 
will  fail,  and  leave  you  comfortless.  The  evil  days  will 
come,  and  the  years  draw  nigh,  w^hen  you  shall  say,  with 
the  sigh  of  anguish  and  despair,  we  have  no  pleasure  in 
them. 

But  in  the  Bible  you  wdll  find  an  antidote  and  a 
remedy — a  preventive  and  a  solace — a  sure  guide  and 
an  infallible  physician.  Here  you  will  be  taught  to 
ey^ped,  what  the  world  styles,  misfortune,  calamity, 
tribulation,  adversity — perhaps  persecution,  poverty,  dis- 
grace :  yes,  even  character,  which  is  dearer  than  life  to 
every  upright  man,  may  be  tarnished  and  prostrated,  for 
a  season,  by  the  insidious  machinations  of  envy  and  jea- 
lousy and  malice — or  blasted  by  the  foul  breath  of  in- 
famy itself— or  you  may  be  wounded  in  the  house  of 
your  friends — (Zech.  xiii.  6,) — for  "the  disciple  is  not 
above  his  master,  nor  the  servant  above  his  lord."  Still, 
if  your  trust  be  in  God,  you  will  not  be  overwhelmed  by 
any  disaster:  you  may  have  reason  to  say  with  an 
eminent  Apostle — "  We  are  troubled  on  every  side,  yet 
not  distressed:  we  are  perplexed,  but  not  in  despair; 
persecuted,  but  not  forsaken;  cast  down,  but  not  de- 
stroyed."— 2  Cor.  iv.  8,  9.  Or  with  holy  Job,  be  enabled 
to  exclaim,  when  stripped  of  all  things — "Though  he 
slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him." — Job,  xiii.  15.  Or  in 
the  language  of  heavenly  resignation — "  Father,  not  my 
will,  but  thine,  be  done."— Luke,  xxii.  42. 

Let  the  Bible,  then,  be  a  lamp  to  your  feet,  and  a  light 
to  }-our  path — the  man  of  your  counsel  and  the  hope  of 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  495 

your  soul.  (As  this  was  my  first — and  has  been  my 
constant — so  let  it  be  remembered  as  my  last  advice 
to  you,  on  this  solemn  and  interesting  occasion.) 

I  am  aware  that  it  has  long  been,  and  still  continues 
to  be  fashionable,  among  well  educated  men,  to  disregard 
and  neglect  the  Bible,  as  beneath  or  unworthy  their 
notice.  They  often  affect  to  disbelieve  it  and  to  despise 
it  —  and  why?  Because  they  know  little  or  nothing 
about  it.  Such  persons  are  frequently  met  with — men 
distinguished  for  wit  and  learning — lawyers — physicians 
— statesmen  —  politicians  —  philosophers  —  accomplished 
authors — who  are  nearly  as  ignorant  of  the  character- 
istic features  and  distinctive  principles  of  the  Christian 
religion  as  heathens ; — and  yet  they  are  as  dogmatical 
in  their  opinions  about  it  as  if  they  were  the  only  com- 
petent and  legitimate  judges  of  its  claims. 

Now,  as  you  will,  probably,  soon  rank  among  some 
of  these  classes,  I  counsel  you  to  be  a  little  more  modest, 
and  candid,  and  equitable — and  carefully  to  read  the 
Bible  through,  before  you  undertake  to  assert  what  it 
does  or  does  not  inculcate.  If  you  can  find,  anywhere 
else,  a  system  of  morals  or  of  faith,  so  well  calculated  to 
render  men  good  and  happy  in  this  world,  and  to  furnish 
them  support,  and  peace  and  hope  and  confidence  and 
joy  and  triumph  in  death — or  if  you  can  account  for 
the  fact,  that,  all  mankind  have  been,  and  still  are,  poly- 
theists  and  idolators,  except  Jews,  Christians  and  Moham- 
medans, who  confessedly  are  indebted  exclusively  to  the 
Bible  for  their  knowledge  of  the  apparently  simple,  ob- 
vious and  natural  truth,  "that  there  is  but  one  living 


496  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

and  true  God" — then  you  will  have  discovered  two  reasons 
(as  yet  unknown)  for  the  rejection  of  the  Bible.  And 
until  you  can  attain  satisfaction  upon  these  two  points,  it 
will  be  hardly  worth  your  while  to  travel  far  abroad 
in  search  of  other  objections  and  difficulties  which 
necessarily  attach  to  infideUty.  For  as  to  the  boasted 
and  boasting  and  all-sufficient  theism  of  the  modern 
school,  it  may  be  passed  with  the  remark,  that  it  has 
never  been  heard  of  except  where  the  light  of  divine 
revelation  has  shown  forth  from  the  pages  of  the  Bible 
— even  upon  those  who  fain  would  extinguish  it  forever. 

Again — and  for  the  last  time,  probably,  while  I  live — 
I  charge  you,  in  the  dread  name  of  the  eternal  Jehovah, 
to  study  this  sacred  volume  thoroughly  and  honestly, 
prayerfully  and  habitually.  No  man  ever  did  this,  and 
remained  a  skeptic  or  an  infidel — or  became  a  bigot  or 
fanatic,  an  enthusiast  or  hypocrite,  a  churl  or  an  an- 
chorite. Let  not  the  authority  of  great  names  bias  your 
judgment  or  command  your  assent.  Spare  no  pains  or 
efforts  in  the  search  of  truth — and  when  found,  dare  to 
acknowledge  and  embrace  it.  Ignorance,  among  learned 
men,  is  the  parent  of  skepticism — as  it  is  of  superstition 
among  the  great  mass  of  the  unlettered. 

Christianity,  in  several  respects,  may  be  regarded  as  a 
science — and  it  must  be  studied  as  carefully,  diligently 
and  thoroughly  as  any  science,  in  order  to  be  under- 
stood. It  involves  too  the  most  deeply  interesting — 
the  most  profound — the  sublimest  philosophy:  —  the 
philosophy  of  human  nature  or  of  the  human  heart 
—  of  man  as  a  rational  accountable  moral   a.2;ent — of 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  497 

man,  in  all  his  diversified  and  complex  relations  with 
his  fellow-men  and  with  his  Maker — during  every  stage 
of  his  existence  in  time  and  throughout  eternity.  Your 
progress  in  this  truly  divine  philosophy  will  be  marked 
by  practical  results  which  cannot  be  mistaken.  It  will 
be  apparent  in  your  temper  and  conduct.  It  will  be 
manifested  by  effects  which  no  other  philosophy  has 
ever  produced — and  which  may  be  summed  up  in  two 
words,  utterly  unknown  to  every  other  system,  and 
which  the  world  to  this  day  can  scarcely  appreciate — 
Humility  and  Charity. 

.  Be  the  friends  and  advocates  of  genuine  religion,  as 
taught  and  illustrated  by  living  example  in  the  Bible  : 
and  you  will  also  be  the  steady,  efficient  and  successful 
friends  of  humanity,  in  every  possible  mode — the  advo- 
cates of  every  good  principle,  cause,  enterprise,  plan  and 
institution  which  the  most  enlightened  wisdom  and  be- 
nevolence shall  be  capable  of  devising  and  executing. 
Take  the  Bible  for  your  guide — and  I  have  no  fear  of 
the  result.  Your  Alma  Mater  and  your  country  will 
never  be  ashamed  of  you — but  will  cherish  you  as  their 
favourite  and  favoured  sons.  Patriotism  and  philan- 
thropy will  claim  you  as  their  own.  The  ignorance,  the 
illiberaUty,  the  persecuting  bigotry,  the  extermmating 
intolerance  of  proud,  supercilious  infideUty,  with  all  its 
ostentatious  hypocritical  pretensions  to  kindness  and 
candour  and  charity — will  blush  in  your  presence — and 
shrink  away  abashed,  like  the  friend  of  darkness  from 
the  face  of  angelic  purity  and  majesty. 

Your  country  has  need  of  learned  and  Christian  law- 

voL.  I.  32 


498  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

yers,  physicians,  clergjanen,  statesmen  —  as  it  has  of 
Christian  and  learned  mechanics,  merchants  and  farmers. 
The  cause  of  religion,  of  education,  of  patriotism,  of 
humanity — is  one  and  indivisible.  Dare  you,  before 
God,  this  day,  pledge  yourselves  to  support  and  to  ad- 
vance it? 

A  patriot  without  religion — like  a  gentleman  without 
honour — is  a  contradiction,  virtually  and  in  fact,  if  not 
in  terms. 

Where,  in  all  the  annals  of  the  ancient  world — marir 
lind — whether  Jewish  or  Pagan — classical  or  barbarian 

did  you  ever  read  of  a  true  patriot  who  was  not  also  a 

religious  man — or  who  at  least,  was  not  a  friend  to  the 
religion  of  his  country?  Look  over  the  catalogue  of 
Greek  and  Roman  worthies — and  then  answer  the  in- 
terrogatory. And  where  on  the  page  of  history  have 
you  found — or  where  upon  this  earth  can  you  find — men 
ashamed  of  religion — except^ — in  Christendom  ?  And  is 
Christianity,  let  me  ask,  the  only  religion  ever  yet  pro- 
mulgated in  our  world  of  which  man  or  woman  has 
reason  to  be  ashamed  ?  (Shall  woman  too  be  ashamed 
of  the  Christian  religion  ?)  I  have  told  you  that  if  you 
seek  this  world  only,  you  will  be  disappointed : — either 
by  not  reaching  the  object  aimed  at,  or  by  discovering 
its  utter  insufficiency  to  yield  you  solid  comfort  and 
enjoyment  when  possessed. 

I  have  told  you  also,  that  if  you  set  out  in  life  with 
the  fear  of  God  before  your  eyes,  and  with  his  love  in 
your  hearts,  you  may  meet  with  much  and  various  tribu- 
lation— but  that  this  will  not  make  you  wretched  or 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  499 

drive  you  to  despair.  On  the  contrary,  if  you  absolutely 
commit  your  ways  to  the  Lord,  you  may  pass,  not  only 
unhurt,  but  triumphant,  through  the  hottest  fiery  fur- 
nace that  human  or  diabolical  malignity  has  ever  pre- 
pared for  the  destruction  of  the  faithful.  Or  if  you  be 
summoned  to  the  horrors  of  martyrdom  with  James,  and 
Paul  and  Peter — ^your  bosoms  may  still  be  calm,  and 
full  of  heavenly  peace  and  hope  and  gladness — and  your 
fame,  hke  theirs,  will  not  be  eclipsed  by  the  persecuting 
and  murderous  Herods  and  Neros  who  may  doom  you  to 
the  stake  or  the  scaffold. 

The  usual  course  of  Providence  however  is  in  this 
wise — The  votaries  of  the  world  flourish  and  prosper  for 
a  season — and  then  come  disaster,  defeat,  misery,  char 
grin,  ruin — or  at  the  best,  disgust  with  the  present,  re- 
morse for  the  past,  and  horrible  misgivings  and  appre- 
hensions for  the  future. 

"VYhile,  on  the  other  hand,  good  men  are  frequently 
proved  at  first  by  many  severe  and  painful  trials — for, 
strange  as  it  may  appear  to  this  world's  wisdom,  "whom 
the  Lord  loveth  he  chasteneth,  and  scourgeth  every  son 
whom  he  receiveth." — Heb.  xii.  6. 

But,  by  and  by,  the  dark  clouds  which,  for  a  period, 
lowered  so  portentously  over  their  apparently  devoted 
heads — begin  to  disperse.  The  sun  of  prosperity  begins 
to  shine — and  shines  brighter  and  brighter  upon  their 
advancing  years.  Their  old  age  is  tranquil  and  happy. 
They  die  universally  respected,  beloved  and  lamented. 
Thus  it  was  with  Moses,  and  Job,  and  Joseph  and 
Daniel — and,  many  others,  whose  lives  are  recorded  by 


500  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

the  pen  of  inspiration  for  our  encouragement  and  instruc- 
tion.— "For  them  that  honour  me  (saith  the  Lord)  I 
will  honour,  and  they  that  despise  me  shall  he  lightly 
esteemed." — 1  Sam.  ii.  30. 

But  there  is  another  world  to  prepare  for,  and  "  godh- 
ness  is  profitable  imto  all  things,  having  promise  of  the 
life  that  now  is,  and  of  that  which  is  to  come." — 1  Tim. 
iv.  8.  Therefore  "  seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
his  righteousness;  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added 
unto  you." — Matt.  vi.  33. 

"  Trust  in  the  Lord  with  all  thine  heart,  and  lean  not 
unto  thine  own  understanding.  In  all  thy  ways  ac- 
knowledge him,  and  he  shall  direct  thy  paths.  Be  not 
wise  in  thine  own  eyes :  fear  the  Lord,  and  depart  from 
evil." — Prov.  iii.  5,  6,  7. 

With  this  word  of  counsel.  I  commend  you  to  the 
grace  of  God,  and  bid  you  adieu.  May  the  blessing  of 
the  great  Father  of  mercies  be  upon  you  and  attend  you 
through  a  long,  a  useful,  a  prosperous  and  a  happy  life : — 
May  his  Spirit  sustain  you  in  the  last  struggles  of  dis- 
sohdng  nature — and  may  the  joys  and  the  glories  of  the 
heavenly  Paradise  be  yours  forever  and  ever!  And 
again,  I  bid  you  a  long,  a  last,  an  afiectionate  farewell  ! 


SPEECH   ABOUT    COLLEGES. 


SPEECH    ABOUT    COLLEGES. 

AT   NASHVILLE,  COMMENCEMENT   DAY,  OCTOBER  4,  1848. 


It  is  often  remarked  of  college  graduates,  that  they 
rarelj  excel  those  who  have  been  far  less  ftivored  on  the 
score  of  education;  and  that,  in  fact,  but  few  of  them 
ever  attain  to  great  eminence.  This  remark  is  made 
either,  1,  as  an  objection  to  the  whole  system  of  college 
discipline — as  being  calculated  rather  to  depress  than  to 
encourage  the  aspirations  of  genius  and  the  development 
of  intellect :  Or,  2,  as  a  direct  censure  upon  the  facility 
with  w^iich  academic  degrees  are  usually  awarded; 
namely,  that  they  are  frequently,  if  not  generally,  con- 
ferred upon  unworthy  candidates. 

1.  As  to  the  first  objection,  it  may  suffice  to  remind 
all  cavillers,  that  eminent  distinction  is  rarely  attained 
by  individuals  of  any  class  or  profession  or  description 
of  men,  under  any  circumstances  whatever.  But  few, 
exceedingly  few,  of  the  vast  multitude  of  lawyers,  physi- 
cians, clergymen,  artists,  teachers,  poets,  orators,  authors, 
warriors,  ever  rise  above  mediocrity ;  or  acquire  that  kind 
of  relative  or  acknowledged  superiority  which  will  insure 
a  permanent  reputation,  or  an  honorable  niche  in  the 

grand  temple  of  fame.     The  ncymina  clara,  the  brilliant 

503 


504  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

luminaries,  the  master  spirits,  of  any  age,  must  ev^^r  be 
few  in  number,  in  any  given  sphere  of  active  or  studious 
enterprise.  Of  the  many  thousands  of  astute  politicians 
or  political  adventurers,  of  office  holders  and  office  seek- 
ers, at  the  present  day,  in  our  own  and  in  other  countries, 
how  many,  think  you,  will  ever  be  known  to  posterity  as 
eminent  statesmen,  legislators,  jurists,  patriots,  or  philan- 
thropists ?  Brief,  indeed,  is  the  catalogue  of  names  which 
really  adorn  and  dignify  the  page  of  our  world's  history, 
during  the  three  thousand  ^^ears  of  which  authentic 
records  have  been  preserved. 

I  do  not  make  this  statement  with  a  view  to  disparage 
or  undervalue  moderate  or  unobtrusive  merit;  or  to  inti- 
mate that  the  million,  Avho  live  and  die  undistinguished 
among  their  contemporaries,  are  therefore  not  useful  in 
their  day  and  generation.  Far  from  it.  They  may  act 
well  their  part  according  to  their  several  abilities  and 
opportunities ;  and  thus  will  have  discharged  their  duty, 
and  satisfied  every  reasonable  expectation.  I  have  ad- 
verted to  an  established  law  of  humanity,  to  a  universal 
order  of  Providence,  as  applicable  to  colleges  as  to  other 
associations  or  communities;  and  not  more  stringently 
applicable  to  them  than  to  all  others.  Let  any  man, 
who  has  a  fancy  for  the  task,  run  over  the  vocabulary 
of  human  greatness — whether  Oriental,  Greek,  Roman, 
Mediaeval  or  Modern, — and  he  will  probably  discover 
that  a  fair  proportion  of  the  whole  had  been  regularly 
trained  in  the  colleges  or  high  schools  of  their  respective 
countries.  So  much  for  the  objection  under  this  particu- 
lar aspect.    The  university  will  never  be  found  in  arrears, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  505 

when  compared  with  the  dominant  spirit  of  the  age  and 
countr}'.  Political  or  religious  despotism  may  impress 
upon  it  a  character  in  Spain  and  Italy  Avidely  different 
from  that  which  it  assumes  in  Britain  or  America. 

But  if  we  regard  the  useful,  the  good,  the  laborious, 
the  faithful — in  all  the  vocations  where  superior  intelli- 
gence is  essential  or  available — we  shall  be  able  to  form 
a  much  juster  estimate  of  the  obligations  which  the  world 
owes  to  the  university  system ;  whatever  may  have  been 
its  vices  or  imperfections.  Let  us  be  thankful  for  the 
benefits,  and  strive  to  remedy  or  remove  the  evils  and 
defects. 

2.  Colleges  confer  degrees  upon  unworthy  candidates. — 
I  admit  the  fact.  I  wish  it  were  otherwise.  Of  honorary 
doctorates,  perhaps  the  least  said  the  better.  Happily, 
w^ith  one  exception,  they  do  but  little  harm,  even  if  they 
do  no  good.  I  think  that  colleges,  in  this  great  model 
Eepublic,  might,  with  manifest  propriety,  cease  to  grant 
the  doctorate  altogether.  I  see  no  reason  why  American 
preachers,  and  schoolmasters,  and  authors  of  spelling 
books  and  grammars,  should  not  assume  the  D.  D.  or 
LL.  D.  at  pleasure,  according  to  their  taste  or  self-appre- 
ciation; just  as  our  whig  and  democratic  loafers  and 
politicians  contrive,  by  some  process  or  other,  to  become 
entitled  or  accustomed  to  the  prefix  or  suffix  of  Colonel, 
General,  Esquire,  Honorable,  or  His  Excellency.  Why 
not?  The  exception  just  alluded  to,  is  the  doctorate  of 
medicine.  This,  whether  conferred  causa  lioiwrls  or  in 
course  upon  ignorant  or  unprincipled  persons,  is  a  griev- 
ous injury  to  the  public. — Because  an  M.  D.  is  a  passport 


506  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

to  popular  confidence  and  practice.  Here  the  people 
cannot  judge  for  themselves.  They  rely  on  the  testi- 
monials thus  dishonestly  furnished  by  learned  and  re- 
sponsible corporations.  And  hence  irreparable  wrongs 
may  be  inflicted  and  endured  before  the  Doctors  utter 
incompetency  can  be  detected  and  exposed.  That  a 
reform  is  needed  here  and  everywhere,  in  the  Medical 
Schools  and  in  reference  to  medical  practice,  I  believe,  is 
the  opinion  of  the  enlightened  profession  generally,  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

But  the  objection  relates  chiefly,  I  suppose,  to  the  first 
degree — the  degree,  namely,  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  Very 
true :  this  degree  is  conferred  by  all  the  colleges  in  the 
Union  every  year  upon  some  unqualified — perhaps,  in 
the  aggregate,  upon  many  unqualified  and  very  un- 
worthy individuals.  This  arises  from  several  causes. 
1.  From  the  fact,  that  a  portion  of  the  youth  who  enter 
our  colleges  are  deficient  in  intellect.  They  do  not  pos- 
sess minds  capable  of  high  and  liberal  cultivation.  Here 
the  native  or  raw  material  is  wanting.  "  Non  ex  quo  vis 
ligno  Mercurius  fit."  No  college  professors  can  work 
miracles,  or  convert  a  blockhead  into  a  Solomon. — 
"  Though  the  ass  may  make  a  pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  yet 
an  ass  he  will  come  back."  2.  From  idle  habits — from 
lack  of  industry  and  application.  No  brilliancy  of  talent 
will  master  any  science  or  language  without  labour. 
While  persevering  labour  will  ultimately  triumph  over 
all  difficulties,  and  insure  success  to  even  comparatively 
humble  genius.  3.  From  a  defective  school  education 
— the  want  of  the  requisite  qualifications  for  a  college 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  507 

life — or  from  the  extreme  youth  of  the  party  when  ad- 
mitted. 

In  two  words :  Our  lads  enter  college  too  young,  and 
without  due  preparation.  They  ought  seldom,  if  ever, 
to  graduate  under  twenty  years  of  age;  and  conse- 
quently, should  not  enter  the  Freshman  or  lowest  class 
younger  than  sixteen.  Up  to  this  period,  ample  work 
might  be  provided  for  them  in  the  primary  and  classical 
school  or  by  the  parental  fireside.  Let  them  be  tho- 
roughly drilled  in  Greek  and  Latin — in  Arithmetic, 
Algebra,  Geometry,  Geography — in  one  or  more  modern 
languages,  when  practicable — at  all  events,  in  the  En- 
glish, so  as  to  be  able  to  speak  and  write  their  own 
vernacular  with  grammatical  accuracy  and  idiomatic 
propriety. 

At  school,  boys  may  readily  learn  the  accidence — 
namely,  the  inflections,  the  orthography,  the  etymology, 
the  signification  of  words — together  w  ith  the  mechanical 
structure,  the  syntax  and  prosody  of  the  ancient  lan- 
guages. And  thus  be  prepared,  in  due  season,  to  attend 
the  lectures  and  illustrations  of  the  accomplished  classi- 
cal professor.  In  reading  Greek  and  Latin  books,  the 
first  object  usually  is,  to  acquire  verbal  knowledge — a 
kind  of  knowledge  which  children  acquire  with  eager- 
ness and  facility  under  judicious  instructors.  The  second 
and  final  object  is,  to  become  acquainted  with  the  mind 
of  the  writer  or  Avith  the  argument  of  his  book.  Thus, 
at  school,  boys  often  read  portions  of  the  most  celebrated 
authors — as  Virgil,  Ovid,  Tacitus,  Livy,  Horace,  Juvenal, 
Cicero,  Xenophon,  Homer,  Thucydides,  Herodotus,  Aris- 


508  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

totle,  Demosthenes,  Euripides,  and  others,  more  or  less 
— but  then,  as  a  general  fact,  they  achieve  little  more 
than  a  mere  mastery  of  words  and  phrases.  They  do 
not  yet  perceive,  or  comprehend,  or  relish  the  various 
recondite  beauties  and  peculiar  excellencies,  for  which 
the  ancient  classics  have  been  studied  and  admired  by 
the  ripest  scholars  of  every  enlightened  age  and  nation. 
They  must  be  carefully  grounded  in  the  rudiments;  and 
gradually  advanced,  step  by  step,  until  their  faculties — 
strengthened,  expanded,  matured,  and  wisely  disciplined 
— become  capable  of  holding  "high  converse"  with  the 
mighty  dead :  with  the  sages,  the  poets,  the  orators,  the 
historians,  the  heroes,  the  statesmen,  the  patriots,  of 
glorious  old  Greece  and  Rome. 

•  Now  it  so  happens,  that  a  large  portion  of  our  college 
students  [Western  as  well  as  Eastern]  are,  at  the  period 
of  matriculation,  but  smatterers  in  the  whole  grammar 
school  course. — Not  always  from  any  fault  of  their  own, 
it  may  be,  but  of  their  teachers.  Some  of  them  can 
hardly  decline  a  noun  or  conjugate  a  verb,  or  distinguish 
a  square  from  a  triangle.  Nevertheless,  they  must  be 
admitted,  and  into  a  high  class  too.  Their  fathers  urge 
and  insist  on  a  trial. — The  boys  are  such  fine  fellows,  so 
clever  and  diligent,  they  will  soon  make  up  all  defi- 
ciencies: just  give  them  a  chance  among  the  junhrs  for 
a  few  weeks;  and  if  they  cannot  go  ahead,  why  then 
put  them  back  or  down  into  their  proper  place — that  is, 
into  a  lower  class.  To  be  sure,  such  ill-furnished  or 
rather  unfurnished  youth  are  about  as  fit  for  the  Junior 
class  as  for  the  Freshman.     And  they  might  as  well  be 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  509 

graduated  forthwith,  as  after  a  two  years'  ruhhmg  and 
shamming,  and  making  much  ado  about  nothing.  By 
the  waj-,  as  to  going  back :  whenever  a  novice  is  per- 
mitted to  study  on  probation  with  any  class,  and  is  found 
unable  to  proceed  or  to  keep  up  with  such  class,  he  in- 
variably complains  of  injustice  if  removed  from  it;  and 
loudly  blames  the  Faculty  for  the  very  indulgence  which 
he  and  his  papa  were  so  earnest  in  soliciting  at  the  out- 
set.   Very  hard  to  please,  are  some  boys  and  some  fathers ! 

Here  I  take  occasion  to  state,  that  the  classification  of 
applicants  for  admission  into  our  college,  is  left  exclu- 
sively to  the  professors.  They  examine  all  candidates, 
and  put  them  into  such  classes  as  they  think  proper. 
Each  of  them  is  sovereign  in  his  own  department,  and 
exercises  the  veto  power  at  discretion.  He  may  prevent 
the  advancement  of  a  student  into  a  higher  class,  or 
exclude  him  at  last  from  the  privilege  of  graduation,  by 
declaring  him  deficient  in  the  studies  of  his  own  particu- 
lar professorship.  Thus  the  whole  affair  of  scholarship 
and  academic  rank  is  committed  to  the  sound  judgment 
and  wisdom  of  those  who  are  constantly  engaged  in  the 
business  of  teaching. 

Again,  most  of  the  studies  pursued  at  college  require 
maturity  of  intellect  and  judgment,  as  well  as  large 
stores  of  elementary  know^ledge.  For  example :  Of  what 
use  are  lectures  upon  standard  English  classics,  involv- 
ing all  the  principles  and  properties  of  style  and  senti- 
ment and  taste  and  criticism,  to  persons  who  have  never 
read  a  page  of  one  of  them? — Or  upon  history,  political 
economy,  ethics,  logic,  jurisprudence,   international  or 


510  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

constitutional  law,  philology,  metaphysics? — Or  upon 
any  grand  division  of  philosophy  or  of  elegant  litera- 
ture? The  fact  is,  college  prelections  and  discipline  are 
designed  for  well  educated  ^^ouths,  on  the  verge  of  man- 
hood.    And  these  only  can  adequately  profit  by  them. 

"Smart  boys"  are  apt  to  be  discouraged  when  they 
cannot  keep  up  or  advance  equally  with  their  class-mates : 
and  they  frequently  relinquish  the  attempt  in  despair. 
They  would  rather  be  expelled  than  be  turned  back,  or 
degraded,  as  they  unwisely  term  and  esteem  it.  Hence, 
they  are  ready  for  fun  and  riot  and  mischief  and  all  sorts 
of  "  renowning,"  which  the  genius  loci  may  suggest,  coun- 
tenance, or  abet.  Here,  especially,  they  are  prone  to 
display  their  Simrtan  craft  and  prowess  in  dissecting  and 
analyzing,  according  to  the  newest  imported  fashion,  with 
jack-knife  or  hatchet,  sometimes  Avith  broad-a^e  and 
sledgehammer,  the  architectural  beauties  of  our  magnifi- 
cent and  unparalleled  temple  of  science  and  the  muses! 
— Upon  yonder  "  hill  side,  so  smooth,  so  green,  so  full  of 
goodly  prospects,  and  melodious  sounds!!!" — * 

[Milton  was  a  capital  schoolmaster.] 

To  be  sure,  in  all  this  matter,  parents  judge  erro- 
neously and  act  injudiciously.  Instead  of  approving 
and  sustaining  the  college  authorities  in  directing  the 


*  A  mere  trifle,  compared  with  the  feats  of  Vandalism  often  perpe- 
trated in  Eastern  colleges.  Our  Western  green-horns  have  much  to 
learn  before  they  can  approximate  the  sublime  daring  of  the  brother- 
hood in  some  of  the  old  States.  Here  no  col]e,a;e  buildings  have  ever 
been  burnt  or  blown  up:  here  no  professors  have  ever  been  killed,  or 
wounded,  or  assaulted,  or  threatened,  or  insulted — by  students. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  511 

studies  of  their  sons,  they  complain  whenever  their  own 
favourite  views  and  plans  are  not  successfully  carried 
out. — That  is,  whenever  their  sons  do  not  accomplish 
impossibilities. 

Thus  again,  when  a  college  censure  or  penalty  is  in- 
flicted upon  a  student — no  matter  how  notoriously  idle, 
disorderly  or  licentious  he  may  have  been — his  parents 
and  relatives  are  sure  to  be  offended,  perhaps  irritated, 
or  greatly  exasperated.  They  become  his  advocates, 
apologists,  defenders.  They  criminate,  abuse,  denounce 
the  poor  Faculty,  without  stint  or  measure.  The  son  is 
a  high-minded,  honourable,  brave,  generous,  good-hearted 
young  gentleman;  who  scorns  all  subterfuge  and  mean- 
ness; and  who  would  not  lie  for  the  universe!  Not  he. 
In  this  particular  at  least,  he  is  above  suspicion ;  and, 
like  the-  Pope,  infallible.  While  the  Faculty  are  a  parcel 
of  paltry  pedants,  pedagogues,  bigots,  charlatans — with- 
out feeling,  spirit,  kindness,  honesty,  or  common  sense. 
I  am  so  accustomed  to  this  result,  that  I  never  look  for 
or  anticipate  a  different.  I  never  expect  any  official 
statement  of  ours  to  weigh  a  feather  against  that  of  the 
darling  boy. — We  are  all  blind  to  our  own  faults  and  to 
those  of  our  children;  while  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world 
around  us  are  wide  open  to  both.  While,  therefore,  one 
parent  complains  loudly  of  injustice,  in  cases  of  college 
discipline,  a  dozen  of  his  neighbours  are  ready,  from  their 
own  knowledge  and  observation,  to  pronounce  the  com- 
plaint, in  that  particular  instance  at  least,  unreasonable 
and  groundless. 

No  gentleman,  or  gentleman's  son,  will  lie.     Of  course, 


512  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

not.  I  therefore  never  question  the  veracity  of  a  student 
under  any  circumstances  whatever.  Nor  do  I  ever  in- 
sinuate the  charge  of  mendacity  or  falsehood  under  any*" 
ambiguous  guise  or  less  offensive  phrase.  I  never  imply 
an  accusation  by  word  or  look,  or  cherish  unkindly  sus- 
picions. I  assume  that  every  person  is  truthful,  honest 
and  just,  until  he  is  proved  to  be  otherwise:  and  I  treat 
him  accordingly.  I  hold  up  truth  everywhere  as  too 
sacred  to  be  tampered  ^dth ;  and  that  a  man  should  die 
at  the  stake,  rather  than  forfeit  his  word  or  trifle  with 
his  conscience. 

In  this  connection — and  to  account  for  certain  rather^ 
startling  esoteric  phenomena  in  college  life — I  take  leave 
to  specify  one  remarkably  liberal  and  convenient  feature 
of  the  ethical  code,  which  obtains  throughout  the  vene- 
rable institutions  of  the  far  East,  namely,  that,  "  to  lie 
to  the  Faculty,  is  no  lie  at  all."  The  student-craft  in- 
deed, in  all  ages  and  countries,  rise  above  vulgar  preju- 
dices, and  give  a  loose  rein  to  adventurous  genius.  They 
make  it  a  point  of  honour  to  protect  one  another  at  every 
verbal  hazard  or  sacrifice,  in  all  their  wild  feats  of  mis- 
chief and  jollification.  They  will  not  lie;  assuredly 
not;  they  do  not  call  it  lying;  they  merely  invent  mar- 
vellous fictions  like  Homer,  or  tell  merry  tales  like 
Shakspeare;  just  to  mystify  credulous  tutors,  or  to  tran- 
quillize the  minds  and  lighten  the  purses  of  the  good  old 
folks  at  home.  They  were  off  at  a  Fancy  Ball,  perhaps, 
some  twenty  miles  distant.  The  learned  professor  is 
made  to  believe  that  they  were  at  their  places  in  the 
recitation  room  all  the  while — but  that  he  was  so  ab- 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  513 

sorbcd  b}-  his  subject  or  spell-bound  by  the  magic  of  his 
own  glowing  eloquence,  that  he  did  not  see  them !  In 
short,  their  object  would  seem  to  be :  1.  To  do  as  the}- 
please,  and  to  play  off  as  many  tricks  as  possible  upon 
all  sorts  of  officials.  And,  2.  To  come  off  with  flying 
colours  at  last — and  with  Latin  diplomas  which  they  can- 
not construe;  and  which  testify  to  as  many  untruths 
as  currently  grace  an  ordinary  newspaper  editorial. 
Whether  this  oriental  improvement  in  morals  has  found 
its  way  into  our  hackwoods  apologies  for  Yankee  uni- 
versities, I  leave  the  curious  to  inquire. 

College  students,  you  see,  reason  and  act  like  all  other 
w^ell  assorted  bodies  or  fraternities  of  great  and  wise 
men.  Like  politicians,  who  never  dream  of  lying,  when 
they  utter  falsehoods,  that  is,  tell  tough  stories,  about 
their  political  opponents  or  in  their  own  behalf  Be- 
cause, with  them,  "  all  is  fair  in  politics."  Or  like  the 
clerical  leaders  of  religious  sects,  who,  believing  them- 
selves always  in  the  right  and  all  others  in  the  wrong, 
never  hesitate  to  declare  and  publish  whatever  may  be 
likely  to  advance  their  own  cause  or  to  damage  their 
adversaries.  Because,  in  their  creed,  "the  end  justifies 
the  means."  These  honourable  and  reverend  gentlemen 
have  adopted  the  principle  of  the  aforesaid  college  code, 
namely,  that  to  lie  to  or  about  certain  other  antagonist 
parties,  is  no  lie  at  all.  Thus  the  college,  at  last,  is 
about  at  par  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  Not  worse  even 
in  this  respect — but  rather  better. 

Perhaps  it  would  not  be  prudent  to  make  any  further 
revelations  in  regard  to  university  mysteries,  or  I  might 


514  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

add,  that  I  have  known  some  dashing  lads,  at  ourtim^- 
honoured  colleges,  who,  on  the  joyous  day  of  commencing. 
Bachelors  of  Arts,  were  as  innocent  of  Greek,  Mathe- 
matics, Chemistry,  and  all  the  onomies  and  ologies  as  any 
of  your  graduated  city  belles — and  not  half  their  equals 
in  English  syntax  and  orthography — who  have  never- 
theless astonished  the  natives  by  their  subsequent  per- 
formances.* Upon  the  stump,  in  the  legislative  hall,  at 
the  bar,  in  the  metropolitan  pulpit,  at  the  camp-meeting, 
they  have  foirly  distanced  competition,  and  borne  off  the 
palm  from  the  whole  bookish  tribe  of  rival  aspirants. 
These,  to  be  sure,  are  rather  strange  abnormal  cases; 
and,  according  to  the  orthodox  philosophy  of  cause  and 
effect,  ought  never  to  have  occurred.  Now  whether  this 
brilliant  success  be  ascribable  to  genius,  to  good  fortune, 
to  post-collegiate  development  and  diligence,  or  to  the 
extreme  facility  with  which  the  people  yield  up  head 
and  heart  to  the  charm  of  musical  delivery,  ready  utter- 
ance, rhetorical  flourish,  bold  assertion,  dogmatical  assu- 
rance, indomitable  self-possession,  commanding  presence, 
or  brazen  impudence — is  still  a  mooted  point  among 
transcendental  casuists;  and  must  be  left,  like  the  au- 
thorship of  Junius  or  the  quadrature  of  the  circle  or  the 


*  Such  perplexing,  inopportune,  eccentric  phenomena,  though  vastly 
encouraging  to  American  go-ahead  intrepidity,  have  proved  the  very 
cruces  criticorum  to  the  plodding  genus  pedagogue,  and  overcast 
with  desponding  gloom  the  anxious  visage  of  many  a  laborious  candi- 
date for  the  dearly-bought  and  well-earned  honours  of  a  legitimate  am- 
bition.— Whose  place,  at  last,  will  be  found,  it  is  feared  in  the  galaxy 
of  some  popular  heroic  Dmiciad. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  515 

political  faith  of  presidential  candidates,  to  the  decision 
of  posterity. 

Whether  any  such  prodigies  have  arisen  in  our  own 
Great  West ;  or  whether  any  species  or  specimen  of  elo- 
quence, inferior  to  that  of  Demosthenes  or  Tully,  would 
be  tolerated  by  our  enlightened,  poetical,  chivalrous  popu- 
lation ;  may  be  answered  by  those  who  best  know,  or  who 
claim  the  right  of  pronouncing  judgment  in  the  premises. 
The  morality  of  a  college  is  always  regulated  by  that 
of  the  community  in  which  it  exists.     It  can  seldom  be 
elevated  above  the  prevailing  standard:  it  w411  rarely 
fall  below  it.     Boys  cannot  be  persuaded  that  anything 
is  wrong,  much  less  criminal  or  disreputable,  which  they 
daily  witness  at  home  and  in  the  fsimilies  with  which 
their  honoured  parents  associate.     This  is  so  obvious  a 
truism,  that  I  might  well  pass  it  in  silence,  were  it  not 
so  generally  overlooked  by  our  dreamy  "  perfectionists" 
in   the   theory   of  education.     They  expect   that    idle, 
vicious,  disobedient,  reckless,  profligate  boys,  who  cannot 
be  controlled  by  father  or  schoolmaster,  will  be  forthw  ith 
reclaimed,  thoroughly  reformed,  and  converted  into  dili^ 
gent,  dutiful,  ingenuous,  exemplary,  accomplished  college 
students.     Parents  are  often  most  urgent  to  guard  their 
eons,  while  at  college,   against  the  very  practices  and 
indulgences  which   were   never   prohibited   or   rebuked 
under  their  own  roof.*     Students  at  college  will  always 


*  A  lady  once  requested  me  to  cure  lier  son  (as  she  expressed  it) 
of  the  bad  habit  of  profane  swearing.  At  the  same  time,  adding, 
that  his  father  was  unfortunately  addicted  to  the  same  practice  at 
home  among  his  children. 


516  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

exhibit  or  reflect  the  moral  and  religious  character  of 
their  domestic  training.  The  code  and  conduct  approved 
at  home,  will  be  approved  and  exemplified  in  college. 
I  do  not  mean  to  affirm  that  parents  are  always  culpable 
or  responsible  for  the  faults  or  crimes  of  their  children. 
I  judge  no  man  or  set  of  men.  But  this  is  certain:  that 
parents  need  never  look  to  a  college  for  any  miraculous 
moral  regeneration  or  transformation  of  character. 

Parents  are  not  always  sagacious  in  their  selection  of 
schools.  They  seem  not  to  be  aware,  that  a  man  who 
does  not  govern  and  bring  up  his  own  children  judi- 
ciously, is  not  competent  to  exert  a  salutary  moral  influ- 
ence over  those  of  other  people.  Whenever  the  sons  of 
a  teacher  are  ill-bred,  ill-mannered,  disorderly,  riotous, 
profane,  intemperate,  lazy,  vulgar,  quarrelsome,  unprin- 
cipled— you  have  standing  palpable  evidence  before  your 
eyes  of  his  utter  incapacity.  His  discipline  is  either 
nugatory  or  vicious. 

I  repudiate  the  doctrine  that  popularity  is  the  only 
proof,  or  any  proof,  of  sterling  merit.  Or  that  a  college 
is  to  be  estimated  by  the  number  of  its'  students.  A 
large  number  is  not  desirable  under  any  circumstances  :* 
and  these  should  be  duly  qualified  in  all  respects.  I 
wish  none  to  apply  for  admission  into  our  college  except 
such  as  are  desirous  to  learn — who  know  how  to  study — 
who  have  acquired  correct  moral  principles  and  habits — 
who  are  capable  of  taking  care  of  themselves,  without 
the  constant  oversight  of  tutor  or  superior — who  are  cor- 

*  Such  was  the  opinion  of  Milton.     See  his  Tractate  on  Education. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  517 

dially  disposed  to  comply  with  the  rules  of  the  institu- 
tion— and  who  will  cheerfully  study  with  any  class  or 
division  of  a  class,  which  the  Faculty  may  designate  as 
best  suited  to  their  actual  attainments,  and  most  condu- 
cive to  their  future  progress. 

Of  the  little  company  already  educated  at  our  institu- 
tion, the  discriminating  public  can  fairly  judge  for  them- 
selves :  and  by  their  verdict  w^e  cheerfully  abide.*  They 
have  been,  or  may  now  be  seen  in  both  houses  of  Con- 
gress, in  several  of  the  State  legislatures,  in  the  presi- 
dential cabinet,  at  foreign  courts,  in  many  other  import- 
ant official  stations,  in  the  editorial  chair,  in  all  the 
liberal  professions,  in  the  various  respectable  walks  and 
vocations  of  private  life,  in  many  of  our  best  schools  and 
colleges  as  educators — and  upon  every  battle-field  from 
the  lagoons  of  Florida  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.f 
And  when  or  where  has  one  of  them  failed  in  duty  or 
been  recreant  to  his  trust?  Our  university  furnished 
more  officers  and  men  to  the  army,  during  the  late 
Mexican  war,  than  any  other  literary  institution  in  the 
land.  Has  a  coward,  think  3'ou,  ever  issued  from  her 
portals,  cro^\Tied  with  her  laurel,  or  honoured  with  her 
credentials?  Who,  among  them,  has  disgraced  the 
proud  banner  of  his  country?    or  shunned  the  post  of 


*  The  number  of  regular  graduates  is  398.  About  1500  have  pur- 
sued their  studies  at  the  University  for  longer  or  shorter  periods,  with- 
out graduation. 

I  Not  a  few  of  them  served  as  volunteers  in  the  Florida  campaign 
of  1836, — and  a  much  larger  number  in  the  late  war. 


518  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

danger?  or  refused  to  lead  the  forlorn  hope,  or  to  die  in 
the  arms  of  victory  ? 

Thus  it  was  during  the  revolutionary  struggle :  thus  it 
has  been  ever  since.  The  college  has  proved,  at  all 
times  and  in  all  countries,  the  genial  nursery  of  patriot- 
ism and  chivalry. 

When  this  college  was  revived  and  reorganized  at  the 
close  of  1824,  there  were  no  simihir  institutions,  in 
actual  operation,  within  two  hundred  miles  of  Nashville. 
There  were  none  in  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Louisiana, 
Arkansas,  Texas,  Middle  or  West  Tennessee — and  none 
in  Kentucky,  nearer  than  Lexington.  There  are  now 
some  thirty  or  more  within  that  distance  [of  200  miles;] 
and  nine  within  fifty  miles  of  our  city.*  These  all 
claim  to  be  our  superiors ;  and  to  be  equal  at  least  to  old 
Harvard  and  Yale.  Of  course,  we  cannot  expect  much 
"custom,"  or  to  command  a  large  range,  of  what  is  mis- 
called, patronage.  With  so  many  formidable  rivals  and 
opponents  at  our  very  doors — eager  to  welcome  pupils  of 
all  ages,  and  of  every  and  no  degree  of  literary  qualifica- 
tion— with  capacious  preparatory  departments  for  A,  B, 
C — darians  and  Hie,  Ha^c,  Hoc-ers — promising  to  work 
cheap;  and  to  finish  off  and  graduate,  in  double  quick 
time,  and  in  the  most  approved  style,  all  who  may  come 


*  I  have  a  list,  now  before  me,  of  twenty-five  colleges  or  universi- 
ties in  Tennessee  alone. — Several  of  these  belong  exclusively  to  indi- 
viduals; and  are  bought  and  sold  in  open  market,  like  any  other 
species  of  private  property.  They  are  invested  with  the  usual  corpo- 
rate powers,  and  may  confer  all  university  degrees  at  pleasure.  This 
is  probably  a  new  thing  under  the  sun:  but  Solomon's  geography  did 
not  extend  to  America. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  519 

to  them — it  is  wonderful  that  the  reguhir  eUxsses  of  our 
humble  "concern"  should  be  maintained  in  a  state  of 
even  (2iMsi  vitality.  Or  that  a  frugal,  sagacious,  dollar- 
loving  pubhc  should  condescend  to  remember  us  at  all. 

Besides,  the  several  religious  denominations  have  col- 
leges of  their  own.  And  it  is  right,  natural  and  proper, 
that  they  should  sustain  them.  As  we  belong  to  no  sect 
or  party^  we  have  no  sect  or  party  to  stand  by  and  be- 
friend us;  to  praise,  puff,  glorify,  and  fight  for  us.  This 
is,  perhaps,  the  worst  possible  position.  To  be  neutral — 
of  no  side,  of  no  party,  of  no  creed — why  neither  poli- 
tician nor  pedagogue,  church  or  school,  would  be  re- 
garded or  trusted  by  any  class.  The  jmte  milieu  is  a 
paradox — an  anomaly — not  to  be  tolerated  in  this  fair 
laud  of  religious  freedom  and  equal  rights. 

Nearly  all  the  preachers,  teachers,  editors,  demagogues, 
and  other  friends  of  the  people,  are  hostile  to  us  and  to 
Nashville.  They  give  us  a  bad  name.  Our  goodly  city 
they  represent  as  a  very  dangerous  place  for  }outh.* 
And  even  some  of  our  own  grave  citizens,  occasionally, 
admit  the  charge  and  confirm  the  imputation.  I  oiler  no 
defence  or  apology,  and  make  no  complaint.  Let  time  do 
its  appropriate  office :  and  the  millennium  will  arrive  at 
last — in  spite  of  colleges  and  croakers. 


*  Should  a  stray  copy  of  this  very  learned  and  grave  discourse 
happen  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  distant  reader,  it  may  be  proper  to 
remind  him,  upon  the  highest  authority,  that:  "The  citizens  of  Nash- 
ville are  distinguished  for  intelligence,  refinement,  courtesy,  hospitality, 
morality  and  religion."  Young  men  of  good  habits  may  live  here  as 
cheaply  and  safely  as  in  any  town  in  the  Union.  Young  men  of  bad 
habits  cannot  live  safely  or  cheaply  anywhere. 


520  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

"Per  varios  casus,  per  tot  discrimina  rerum, 
Tendimus  in  Latium." — 

We  should  despair,  indeed,  but  for  one  cheering  con- 
sideration. We  have,  or  ought  to  have,  and  eventually 
must  have,  all  the  ladies  on  our  side.  Their  interest, 
their  wisdom  and  their  affections  will  enlist  them  in  our 
cause.  How  can  they  help  it?  Do  not  they  see  that  the 
much  envied,  and  therefore  calumniated,  University  fur- 
nishes the  best  husbands  in  the  world?  Here  I  may 
safely  rest. —  Causa  dicta  est.  The  ladies  govern.  And 
all  good  young  men  will  come  hither  to  learn  how  to  win 
them. 

The  University  has  received,  from  the  highest  source, 
one  gracious  complimentary  notice,  which  I  cannot  for- 
bear, in  this  rather  auspicious  connection,  just  to  glance 
at;  and  which  I  am  pleased  to  recognize  as  appropriate 
and  well-merited.  In  substance,  it  is  this :  Our  gradu- 
ates generally,  on  leaving  college,  appear  to  wear  their 
academic  honors  meekly.  They  assume  no  haughty  or 
silly  airs  of  superiority. — Betray  no  arrogance,  pride  or 
vanity. — Affect  nothing  of  the  "  Odi  profanum  vulgus,  et 
arceo,"  which  is  so  often  and  so  offensively  characteristic 
of  the  cloistered  pedant,  and  of  the  lions  of  the  village 
school  and  country  college.  They  seem  to  think  their 
education  only  just  begun — not  completed.  Whatever 
may  have  been  their  previous  views  or  habits,  they  are 
evidently  anxious  now  to  learn — to  improve — to  acquire 
more  and  larger  stores  of  knowledge.  They  are  desirous 
to  attend  the  most  distinguished  colleges  and  professional 
seminaries ;  or  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  any  eminent  Gamaliel 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  521 

who  can  instruct  or  counsel  them.  They  do  not  think 
more  highly  of  themselves  than  they  ought  to  think. 

To  bring  youth  to  this  point — to  this  modest  correct 
self-appreciation  —  is  a  great  achievement;  and  worth 
more  than  any  abstract  amount  whatever  of  mere  lin- 
guistic or  philosophical  lore.  This  is  the  crowning  glory 
of  a  university  education.  Indeed,  this  is  its  very  es- 
sence— its  refining,  elevating,  life-giving  spirit.  Now  it 
is  worthy  of  remark,  that  this  happy  result,  this  invalu- 
able consummation,  is  often  secured  or  attained  amidst 
the  contact  and  collision  of  mind  with  mind  of  the  youth 
among  themselves,  in  their  common  pursuits,  discussions, 
debates,  and  other  trials  of  intellectual  strength — and 
under  the  gentle  mesmeric  influence  of  the  daily  lectures 
of  sensible  and  respected  professors — by  many  who  mas- 
ter but  little  of  the  "hard  studies"  of  the  prescribed 
curriculum. 

But  with  this  priceless  acquisition — this  enlightened 
feeling,  if  I  may  so  express  it — this  deep  conviction  that 
they  must  labour  all  the  more  for  time  and  opportunities 
wasted  or  neglected — they  go  forth,  true  men,  to  do  or  die. 
They  often  reach  the  highest  honours :  and  they  always 
attract  esteem  as  high-minded  and  right>minded  gentle- 
men. 

In  fact,  I  think  that  this  is,  chiefly  and  pre-eminently, 
what  is  meant  by  a  liberal  education. 

[The  concluding  monitory  and  religious  portion  of  the 
discourse,  designed  more  especially  for  the  graduating 
class,  is  omitted.] 


NAME  OF  OUR   REPUBLIC. 


NAME  OF  OUR  REPUBLIC. 

"UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA."— "AMERICANS."— SHALL  WE 
ADOPT  A  NEW  NAME? 

[BKINQ  PART  OF  AN  ADDRESS  DELIVKRED  IN  NASffVILLE  OX  COMMENCEMENT 
DAY,  OCTOBER  3, 1»49.] 


At  successive  periods,  since  the  achievement  of  our 
national  independence,  various  propositions  have  been 
made  to  change  the  name  of  our  Republic,  on  the 
ground,  first,  that  we  have  no  right  to  our  present 
appellation;  and,  second,  that  it  is  neither  distinctive 
nor  appropriate.  Individuals  of  high  character  [as  Noah 
Webster,  Washington  Irving,  etc.]  and  respectable  lite- 
rary associations  [as  the  New  York  Historical  Society — 
See  Report  of  Committee,  March  31, 1845,]  have  argued 
the  case  with  all  commendable  zeal  and  ability  in  favour 
of  a  change ;  and  they  have  gravely  recommended  other 
names  as  more  pertinent  and  expressive,  as  well  as  less 
anomalous,  ostentatious,  and  exclusive.  I  shall  not  re- 
peat the  arguments  or  reasons,  poetical  or  political,  spe- 
cious and  imposing  though  they  be,  which  have  been 
thus  ingeniously  advanced.  I  take  a  different  view 
of  the  subject. 

I  maintain  that  we  have  the  best  possible  rigid  to  the 

style   and   name  of   "United   States  of  America"   and 

525 


526  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

"Americans;"  and  that  no  others  could  be  substituted 
equally  legitimate,  significant  or  proper. 

We  assumed  the  name  when  there  was  not  a  single 
independent  State  or  nation  of  European  origin  upon 
the  whole  western  continent.  A  name  theretofore  un- 
known and  unappropriated.  A  name  to  which  no 
other  people  on  the  globe  could  then  prefer  a  shadow 
of  claim. 

This  name  has  been  recognized  by  all  nations  without 
question  or  hesitation. 

It  has  been  used  in  all  our  public  acts,  documents, 
constitutions  and  treaties — from  its  consecration  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  to  this  good  day. 

Our  citizens  have  always,  and  everywhere,  been  called. 
Americans  by  friend  and  foe.  They  have  never  been 
known  by  any  other  name.  It  was  spontaneously  con- 
ferred or  rather  adopted  by  all  Europe,  at  the  very  out- 
set of  our  national  existence.  Even  our  kind-hearted 
mother  England  did  not  hesitate,  though  in  scornful 
derision,  to  denounce  us  as  American  rebels,  or  rebel 
Americans  —  at  all  events,  as  Americans.  And  the 
treaty  of  Paris  finally  settled  the  question,  even  in 
her  mind,  never  again  to  be  mooted  or  debated. 

The  mere  fact  that  other  independent  States  have 
since  been  established  upon  this  continent,  neither  de- 
prives us  of  our  right  to  our  own  original  name,  nor 
furnishes  to  any  of  them,  either  ground  of  complaint, 
or  the  slightest  title  to  the  same  appellation. 

Mexico,  Peru,  Bolivia,  Brazil,  Chili,  Colombia,  and  the 
rest,  must  be  content  with   such   names  as  they  have 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  527 

acquired  or  may  choose  hereafter  to  adopt.  They,  too, 
all  concur  in  styling  us  Americans.  If  any  of  these 
had  been  constituted  simultaneously  with  our  own  go- 
vernment, there  might  have  been  reason  for  an  amicable 
convention  upon  the  subject,  had  a  difficulty  of  the  kind 
arisen. 

Ours,  then,  is  the  American  Republic — The  United 
States  of  America — and  we  are  Americans.  A  name 
sufficiently  euphonious,  specific,  definite,  comprehensive 
— and  fairly  won.  Who  would  exchange  it  for  Freedonia 
or  AUeghania  or  Apalachia,  or  any  other  hitherto  sug- 
gested or  hereafter  to  be  invented?  Is  it  not  pleasant 
to  the  eye,  grateful  to  the  ear,  dear  to  the  heart,  and 
precious  to  the  faith,  of  every  honest  Whig  and  Demo- 
crat amongst  us  ? — nay  of  every  hopeful  friend  of  free- 
dom and  humanity  throughout  the  world  ? 

Ought  we  not  to  rejoice  in  it?  resolve  to  preserve  it 
unsullied?  strive  to  elevate  its  true  dignity?  enlarge  its 
influence  ?  increase  its  brilliancy  ? — until  it  shall  acquire 
a  moral  power  and  grandeur  more  effiictive,  and  a  lustre 
more  resplendent,  than  any  other  which  has  ever  graced 
the  page  of  history  or  insphed  the  muse  of  poetic 
genius  ? 

Washington,  in  his  Farewell  Address,  speaks  thus: 
•'The  name  of  American,  which  belongs  to  you  in 
your  national  capacity,  must  always  exalt  the  just 
pride  of  patriotism,  more  than  any  appellation  derived 
from  local  discriminations.  With  slight  shades  of  differ- 
ence, you  have  the  same  religion,  manners,  habits,  and 
political  principles: — you  have  in  a  counnon  cause  fought 


528  EDUCATIOXAL     DISCOURSES. 

und  triumphed  together:  the  independence  and  liberty 
you  possess,  are  the  work  of  joint  counsels,  and  joint 
efforts,  of  common  dangers,  sufferings,  and  successes." 

Our  goodly  name,  it  is  true,  has  not  been  uniformly 
and  universally  treated  with  as  much  respect  as  we  are 
prone  to  arrogate  as  its  just  due.  We  are  rather  sensi- 
tive, fastidious  and  irritable  under  the  lash  of  criticism 
and  rebuke.  Yet  gross  slander,  unmitigated  abuse,  de- 
liberate misrepresentations — circulated  not  merely  in  the 
daily  metropolitan  gazettes  b}'  mercenary  jobbers,  but 
stereotyped  in  the  sumptuous  octavoes  of  the  national 
classic  historian,*  would  seem  to  afford  matter  of  grave 
indignation,  if  not  of  charitable  retaliation.  Forbear- 
ance may  cease  to  be  a  \artue.  But  time  heals  disputes 
as  well  as  diseases — works  miracles  and  exorcises  evil 
spirits  and  wicked  demons.  A  brighter  day  is  daAvning. 
For  although  Ameriean  has  been,  for  more  than  half  a 
century,  a  term  of  reproach  and  derision  in  certain  quar- 
ters, yet  even  there  a  revolution  appears  to  be  in  progress 
and  not  unlikely  to  succeed.  At  least,  present  symptoms 
are  promising.  Even  the  ultra  tory  British  press,  though 
rather  ungraciously,  and  as  if  by  constraint,  abates  much 
of  its  accustomed  rancour  and  virulence  when  discoursing 
about  our  strange  country;  and,  now  and  then,  puts 
forth  an  utterance  which  almost  savours  of  laudation. 
These  faint  indications  of  returning  rationality  and  jus- 
tice, bespeak  more  of  envy,  jealousy  or  fear,  perhaps, 
than  of  frank  generous  good-will  and  hearty  encourage- 

*  See  Alisou,  vol.  i.  p.  153. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  529 

ment.  Still,  the  bare  semblance  of  righteousness  is  some- 
what more  grateful  than  indifference  or  contempt.  Thej' 
cannot  any  longer  even  affect  to  despise  us.  That  dac- 
has gone  by — we  are  no  longer  a  mere  mass  of  vulgarity 
and  pretension — the  refuse  of  European  outcasts  and 
outlaws  —  the  grovelling  worshippers  of  Mammon  —  an 
illiterate  unwashed  herd  of  democratic  dolts  and  bluster- 
ing demagogues — of  semi-savage,  barbarous,  cowardly, 
swaggering,  insolent,  braggadocios — of  beastly  inebriates, 
duellists,  cutthroats,  lynchers,  gamblers,  knaves,  fools, 
manstealers,  scoffers,  atheists  —  and  whatever  else  of 
choice  epithet  their  ow^n  classic  Billingsgate  might  supply 
at  command.  Verily,  we  are  at  length  somehochj — a  posi- 
tive quantity — a  real  substantive  entity — and  no  mis- 
take !  We  are  now  recognized  as  a  great  nation,  a  gigan- 
tic empire,  a  commanding  and  most  potent  republic — 
fearless,  intrepid,  invincible — where  difficulties  exist  only 
to  be  overcome — and  in  whose  vocabulary  the  word  im- 
possible never  occurs. 

Truly,  this  is  a  marvellous  and  very  opportune  dis- 
covery ! 

We  have  survived  all  manner  of  trials  and  disasters — 
have  passed  through  many  perilous  scenes  of  domestic 
strife  and  bitterness  and  exasperation — have  triumphed 
over  nullification  and  bankruptcy  and  repudiation — have 
been  to  school,  and  learned  how  to  make  a  book  or  two 
for  Edinburgh  Reviewers  to  read  and  perchance  to  patron- 
ize, and  a  few  others  for  English  Barristers  and  Benchers 
to  study,  and  to  cite  as  authorities  in  the  highest  courts 
of  the  kingdom — have  achieved  a  trifle  in  sculpture  and 

VOL.  I.  34 


530  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

painting,  as  well  as  in  practical  mechanics  and  scientific 
researches — have  extended  the  steamer,  the  canal,  the 
railway,  the  electro-magnetic  telegraph,  all  over  the  land 
and  the  waters — have  supported  religion,  the  church  and 
the  clergy,  by  the  voluntary  action  of  the  people— have 
cherished  the  common  school  as  an  indispensable  element 
of  republican  health,  vigour  and  prosperity — have  shipped 
millions  of  cotton  to  Europe,  which  ought  to  have  been 
manufactured  at  home  —  have  welcomed  to  our  shores 
and  broad  lands  hundreds  of  thousands  who  could  find 
neither  food  nor  shelter  in  the  old  world — have  cheered 
the  hearts  and  saved  the  lives  of  Ireland's  famished  and 
perishing  hosts,  by  our  gratuitous  and  bountiful  supplies, 
during  the  most  critical  and  expensive  period  of  hostili- 
ties with  a  border  republic — have  governed  ourselves  to 
the  entire  contentment  of  the  Whigs  and  the  Democrats, 
as  either  happened  to  be  in  the  ascendant,  without  stand- 
ing armies  or  onerous  taxation,  and  without  dread  of  in- 
surrections, tumults,  treasons  or  rebellions — have  never 
hanged  a  man  for  political  crimes,  nor  abridged  the  rights 
of  conscience,  or  the  freedom  of  speech,  or  the  press — 
have  occasionally,  too,  exhibited  a  naartial  spirit  and 
prowess,  which  few  among  the  great  potentates  of  the 
earth  would  care  to  challenge  or  provoke — and  we  shall 
outlive  all  present  impending  signs  and  tokens  of  calamity 
and  disunion,  from  provisoes  and  compromises,  wise  or 
foolish,  from  iiro  slavery  ultraism  or  abolition  fanaticism, 
and  from  all  sorts  of  political  agitation,  insanity,  ambi- 
tion, or  empiricism.  "  Our  Union,  it  must  be  preserved !" 
It  shall  he  preserved — is  the  loud,  determined,  fervent 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  531 

response  of  the  universal  American  heart.  The  very 
name  is  a  bond  of  union — and  we  will  never  yield  or 
forfeit  the  one  or  the  other. 

Here  I  must  stop  at  the  threshold  of  a  tempting  and 
prolific  theme — opening  largely  to  self-gratulation  for  the 
past  and  of  glorious  promise  for  the  future. 

We  have  been  accused  of  ambition — of  egregious  terri- 
torial enlargement  propensities — because  we  have  an- 
nexed to  our  Union  other  States  by  fair  purchase  or  by 
the  free  consent  and  desire  of  their  inhabitants  —  or 
because  we  whipped  the  Mexicans  with  infinite  odds 
against  us ;  and  then  paid  them  for  a  portion  of  their 
savage  useless  deserts  [the  gold  regions  were  not  then 
dreamt  of  J  a  larger  sum  than  they  would  probably  have 
demanded  for  the  same,  with  Texas  included,  prior  to 
the  conquest.  This  was  at  least  magnanimous  on  our 
part — if  not  customary,  wise  or  politic.  And  yet  we 
have  never  held  a  single  province,  however  acquired,  as 
a  mere  tributary  dependency;  to  be  governed  and  op- 
pressed at  pleasure  by  avaricious  viceroys  or  licentious 
pro-consuls.  Every  addition  becomes,  in  due  time,  and 
by  a  single  constitutional  provision,  an  integral  part  of 
the  Republic  —  a  new  State,  with  the  same  privileges, 
laws  and  immunities  as  the  immortal  old  thirteen.  Such 
has  been  the  good  fortune  of  Louisiana,  Florida  and 
Texas. — And  such  will  be  the  speedy  lot  of  California, 
Oregon  and  the  rest  of  the  conquered  and  purchased 
territory,  wherever  situated  or  however  circumstanced. 
Now,  who  is  benefited  by  this  American  system  of  an- 
nexation?    Not  the  general  government  at  Washington 


532  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

— not  Massachusetts,  nor  Ohio,  nor  Georgia,  nor.  any 
individual  State  —  but  simply  and  exclusively,  the  citi- 
zen, native  and  immigrant,  of  the  annexed  provinces.  I 
do  not  suppose  that  Tennessee  derives  any  direct  pecu- 
niary profit  or  advantage  from  Texas — but  the  good 
people  of  Texas  are  immense  gainers  by  the  transfer — 
as  any  able  economist  may  calculate,  who  will  apply  his 
arithmetic  to  the  task.  That  such  additions  of  free-trad- 
ing communities  greatly  enlarge  the  sphere  of  commercial 
enterprise,  of  friendly  intercourse,  and  of  successful  specu- 
lation, will  not  be  questioned.  But  these  are  benefits 
common  to  all  our  citizens  of  every  State.  Hence  all 
controversy  about  a  division  of  the  spoils  of  a  conquered 
people,  between  different  sections  of  the  Union,  is  frivo- 
lous and  nugatory.  There  are  no  spoils  or  plunder  to  be 
distributed.  Not  a  Mexican  has  been  robbed  or  deprived 
of  his  property.  And  no  American  can  get  a  dollar's 
worth  of  it,  or  a  foot  of  land,  without  paying  for  it. 

History  does  not  furnish,  according  to  my  poor  reading, 
many  illustrations  of  a  similar  spirit  or  conduct.  Neither 
ancient  Rome,  nor  modern  Britain  or  France  or  Russia 
ever  conquered  in  this  fashion.  The  civilized,  intellec- 
tual, refined,  benevolent,  chivalrous.  Christian  England, 
queen  of  the  seas,  and  the  avowed  champion  of  universal 
negro  emancipation,  holds,  at  this  moment,  in  absolute 
serfdom  or  colonial  subjection,  more  territory  in  Asia, 
Africa,  Australia,  America,  and  the  Islands  of  the  Ocean, 
than  would  equal  in  extent  a  dozen  of  our  moderate 
and  modest  republics. 

In  this  sense,  and  in  the  European  style,  we  have  not 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  533 

been,  and  never  can  become,  without  a  radical  change  in 
the  genius  of  our  people  and  institutions,  a  conquering 
or  ambitious  nation.  We  are  ready  enough  to  fight  in  a 
just  cause,  and  when  the  crisis  arrives,  we  shall  repel 
the  invader — come  whence  he  may.  We  will  submit  to 
neither  injury  nor  insult.  But  we  have  no  disposition 
to  become  aggressive — to  create  a  war  merely  for  the 
sake  of  conquest.  Such  is  not  our  vocation.  Should 
our  neighbours,  however,  either  at  the  North  or  South- 
west, think  proper  to  attack  us,  we  shall  beat  them  of 
course  —  subdue  them  —  and,  if  we  please,  annex  their 
country  to  the  Union.  What  then?  We  shall  merely 
create  a  convenient  number  of  sovereign  independent 
States  like  our  own,  and  make  all  their  people  fellow 
citizens  and  orthodox  republicans.  Such  is  the  ex- 
pansive character  of  our  confederated  democracy,  that  it 
admits  of  indefinite  extension — while  it  leaves  all  domes- 
tic, local,  municipal  jurisdiction  and  control  in  the  hands 
of  the  people  at  home.  I  take  it  for  granted,  that  our 
Republic  will,  in  reasonable  time,  embrace  the  whole  of 
North  America.  I  think  the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent 
countries  will  ask  for  annexation.  It  will  come  peace- 
ably and  as  a  matter  of  course — if  we  'bide  our  time. 

Here  again  I  forbear.  We  have  grown  up  into  a 
Republic, —  such  as  the  world  had  never  witnessed  be- 
fore. I  do  not  mean  in  magnitude  or  power,  but  in 
hind.  It  stands  in  no  historical  category.  Its  model 
or  similitude  can  be  traced  in  no  human  record  nor  in 
any  locality  upon  the  globe.  Our  ancestors  were  a  pecu- 
liar people — were  nurtured  and  trained  under  peculiar 


534  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

circumstances  —  and  were  eventually  fitted  to  enact  a 
peculiar  part — to  construct  a  peculiar  system  of  self- 
government,  exactly  adapted  to  their  then  extraordi- 
nary position,  and  to  their  subsequent  growth  and 
development — however  rapid,  or  however  stupendous. 
Let  us  cherish  a  grateful  filial  reverence  towards  our 
noble  ancestors — whether  Puritan,  Quaker,  Catholic  or 
Cavalier.  They  were  all  men — good  and  true.  The 
fatherland  could  have  furnished  no  better.  They  were 
always  freemen.  They  came  hither  to  live  and  die  free- 
men. They  were  often  annoyed,  harassed,  worried,  vexed, 
during  a  long  colonial  novitiate,  by  an  unwise,  illiberal, 
jealous  administration  at  home. — But  they  never  surren- 
dered a  single  attribute  of  the  freeborn  Englishman. 
They  endured  much,  remonstrated  with  dignity,  and 
resisted  manfully  every  attempted  encroachment.  The 
trial  at  arms  came  at  length.  The  first  effort  to  coerce 
obedience  to  unconstitutional  demands,  was  met,  as  none 
but  the  free  and  the  brave  can  meet  the  mercenary 
veteran  legions  of  imperious  despotism. 

The  story  of  our  singular  colonial  apprenticeship — 
of  the  revolutionary  war,  [which  was  conservative  not 
destructive,  undertaken  to  assert,  maintain  and  perpetu- 
ate our  inalienable  English  rights,  not  to  try  novel  experi- 
ments or  to  demolish  existing  establishments,] — of  the 
causes  and  embarrassments  which  led  to  the  adoption  of 
the  Federal  Constitution  —  of  the  origin,  conduct  and 
consequences  of  the  war  of  1812 — and  of  various  extra- 
ordinary political  and  other  phenomena  down  to  the 
present  day — is,  in  some  respects,  familiar  to  everybody; 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  535 

though  few,  perhaps,  are  conversant  either  with  the  un- 
disguised facts,  or  witli  the  real  motives,  good  and  bad, 
of  the  prominent  actors.  No  master  pen  or  pencil  has 
yet  portra^^ed — pictured  to  the  eye — engraven  upon  the 
heart — the  heroic  and  classic  age  of  our  American  his- 
tory— the  age  of  Washington.  But  the  main  facts  and 
results  are  patent  to  the  whole  world. 

We  are  now  universally  known  and  honoured  as 
Americans,  Honoured  as  are  none  besides.  From 
Archangel  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  —  from  Dublin 
to  Canton — no  national  epithet  will  pass  as  currently  or 
command  as  high  respect,  as  that  of  American,  Abroad, 
our  citizens  are  all  Americans : — not  Tennesseans  or  Caro- 
linians or  Yermonters — not  Whigs  or  Democrats  or  Feder- 
alists. They  are  proud  of  their  country,  of  their  name, 
of  their  government,  of  their  sages,  heroes  and  states- 
men. 

AH  local,  political  or  other  domestic  party  distinctions 
are  lost,  forgotten,  disregarded — merged  or  absorbed — in 
the  one  august  name  which  reaches  over  and  includes  the 
entire  Republic, — One  and  indivisible  forever! 

We  have  a  name  gloriously  illustrated  and  illustrious. 
Our  sacred  duty  is  to  maintain  it  untarnished.  Every 
educated  youth  especially,  is  a  depositary  and  champion 
of  his  country's  good  name.  By  his  conduct  and  bear- 
ing, at  home  and  abroad,  in  private  and  in  public,  he 
can  do  much  to  deepen,  enlarge,  exalt,  and  perpetuate 
the  favourable  prepossession  with  which  the  American 
citizen  is  everywhere  received  and  welcomed. 

Let  every  American,  who  travels   or   sojourns   in  a 


536  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

foreign  land,  remember  that  he  is,  for  the  time,  -upon 
his  good  behaviour,  as  the  accredited  official  guardian 
of  his  country's  honour.  As  an  American  citizen,  he 
has  no  superior  in  rank  or  title.  He  is  by  birth,  and 
may  be  by  his  intelligence  and  deportment,  the  peer 
of  transatlantic  nobility  and  royalty. 

To  be  a  Roman  citizen,  was  once  a  distinction,  coveted 
by  the  proudest  natives  of  every  province  and  kingdom 
conquered  or  protected  by  the  Roman  arms.  It  was  not 
only  a  passport,  honorary  and  credential,  the  wide  world 
over,  but  a  talisman  of  defence  and  security  against  all 
arbitrary  provincial  tyrants,  great  and  small,  even  under 
the  most  corrupt  and  despotic  forms  of  consular  and  im- 
perial fanaticism. 

"Civis  Romanus  sum," — "I  am  a  Roman  citizen," — 
was  the  eloquent  and  effective  plea,  which  caused  the 
unrighteous  judge  to  tremble,  which  opened  prison  doors, 
which  arrested  the  executioner's  arm,  and  which  procured 
for  the  doomed  and  otherwise  helpless  victim,  a  fair  hear- 
ing and  impartial  trial,  according  to  the  laws  of  Rome, 
and  before  her  most  august  tribunals. 

"I  am  an  American  citizen," — shall,  may  we  not  hope, 
prove  not  less  potent  or  availmg,  when  uttered  by  the  hum- 
blest of  our  countrymen,  in  the  wildest  and  remotest  re- 
gions of  the  globe? 

But  there  is  yet  a  name,  which,  when  adequately  appre- 
ciated, rises,  in  its  vast  comprehension  of  the  present  and 
the  future,  infinitely  above  all  Roman,  all  Greek,  all 
American,  lustre,  fame,  and  grandeur.  That  name  is 
Christian.     He  who  possesses  all  that  the  name  implies, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  537 

is  a  citizen  of  the  Almighty's  universal  and  everlasting 
empire.  He  is  advanced  forever  above  and  beyond  the 
reach  of  pain,  disaster,  sorrow  and  death.  Ingratitude, 
detraction,  slander,  falsehood,  envy,  jealousy,  aml^ition, 
revenge,  malignity,  persecution,  and  the  ten  thousand 
other  evil  passions  and  devices  of  wicked  men,  may 
assail  him,  or  even  adorn  his  brow  with  the  crown  of 
martyrdom, — but  still  he  is  safe — for  he  is  a  citizen  of 
Heaven!  Who  would  not  be  a  Christian?  as  well  as  an 
American?  Why  should  not  the  two  be  inseparably 
united?  Why  should  not  American  Christian  become 
the  characteristic  distinctive  appellation  of  our  people? 
so  that  we  might  justly  be  esteemed  as  the  noblest, 
holiest,  happiest,  freest,  most  disinterested  and  charitable 
portion  of  the  human  family?  Then  would  the  philan- 
thropist, the  patriot,  the  repubhcan,  the  Christian,  be  all 
combined  and  blended  in  the  one  great  name,  American. 
And  he  would  be  joyfully  hailed  as  the  missionary  of 
liberty  and  hght,  of  religion  and  peace,  of  mercy  and 
salvation,  to  an  oppressed,  benighted,  and  perishing 
world. 


LIFE  A\D   CHARACTER 


PROFESSOR  GERARD  TROOST 


THE   LIFE    AND    CHARACTER 


PEOF.  GERARD  TROOST,  M.D. 

A  DISCOURSE  DELIVERED  IN  NASHVILLE  ON  COMMENCEMENT  DAY, 
OCTOBER  2,  1850. 


Our  University  has  sustained  numerous  painful  be- 
reavements within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  Be- 
tween seventy  and  eighty  of  her  ingenuous  and  gifted 
Alumni  have  thus  early  been  numbered  with  the  dead. 
We  have  wept  over  their  apparently  premature  de- 
parture, and  deeply  sympathized  with  the  sorrows  of 
surviving  relatives  and  friends.  Could  we  spread  open 
before  you  our  brief  college  catalogue,  and  glance  at  the 
names  to  which  is  prefixed  the  usual  token  of  mortality, 
we  should  revive  reminiscences  and  associations  most 
thrilling  to  the  heart  of  the  speaker,  and  not  less  so  to 
that  of  many  a  hearer.  We  could  tell  of  genius,  talent 
and  industry — of  rich  and  varied  attainments — of  rare 
intellect,  ripe  scholarship,  pure  morals  and  gentle  man- 
ners— of  modest  worth,  generous  ambition  and  noble 
philanthropy — in  a  word,  of  the  thousand  juvenile  indi- 
cations of  future  eminence  and  usefulness ;  all .  to  be 
suddenly  crushed  and  withered  in  the  very  buddings 
of  anticipation;  —  but  we  may  not  linger  upon  this 
melancholy,  though  grateful   theme.     The   memory  of 

541 


542  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

their  virtues  and  high  promise  is  engraven  upon  the 
hearts  of  those  who  knew  and  loved  them  best. 

But,  our  fathers :  where  are  thej  ?  The  honourable 
and  respected  Board  of  Trustees  have  been  visited,  too, 
by  the  inexorable  king  of  terrors.  Alas,  how  many 
endeared  and  distinguished  names  have  been  stricken 
from  the  roll,  and  their  remains  consigned  to  the  silent 
tomb!  Nineteen  regular  members  of  the  Board — be- 
sides three  Governors,  Cannon,  Carroll  and  Polk, 
who  were  members  ex-qfficio  —  have  deceased  during 
the  period  of  my  connection  with  the  University,  [26 
years.]  Of  those  who  were  members  on  my  first  arrival 
at  Nashville,  only  seven  continue  to  hold  that  relation 
at  the  present  time.  Thus  speedily  have  passed  away 
from  this  mortal  scene,  the  good,  the  great,  the  wise,  the 
brave — the  soldier,  the  statesman,  the  jurist,  the  physi- 
cian, the  divine,  the  diplomatist,  the  Governor,  the  Presi- 
dent— men  of  power  and  renown — destined,  some  of 
them,  to  live  in  the  hearts  of  their  countrymen,  and  to 
illustrate  the  page  of  the  world's  history  throughout  all 
future  generations.*  I  may  add,  that  every  member  of 
the  first  or  original  Board,  whose  names  are  recorded  in 
the  charter  of  1806,  has  deceased. 

Of  the  Faculty,  seven  Professors  and  three  Tutors,  my 
colleagues  and  associates,  at  different  periods,  have  been 
removed  by  death. — Only  three  of  them,  however,  while 
in  the  actual  service  of  the  University;   namely,  Pro- 

*  Among  the  number  were  two  Presidents  of  the  United  States, 
Andrew  Jackson  and  James  K.  Polk. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  543 

fessors  Boweii,  Ilainiltoii  and  Troost.  The  first  (Prof. 
Bo  wen,)  died,  after  two  and  a  half  years'  labour  among 
us,  and  after  giving  ample  evidence  of  superior  qualifica- 
tions for  the  chair  of  Chemistry — esteemed  and  lamented 
by  his  acquaintance  and  by  the  votaries  of  science 
throughout  the  land.  He  had  been  a  favourite  pupil  of 
Professors  Silliman  and  Hare,  at  New  Haven  and  Phila- 
delphia. Probably,  no  young  man  of  that  day  had  in 
prospect  a  more  brilliant  career  in  the  judgment  of  the 
most  accomplished  of  his  scientific  contemporaries.* 

Professor  Hamilton  was  better  known.  He  was  with 
us  many  years;  and  so  recentl}^  that  few  of  our  citizens 
could  have  been  strangers  to  his  person  or  to  his  worth. 
A  more  exemplary,  conscientious,  modest,  consistent, 
unobtrusive  Christian  gentleman  has  rarely  been  met 
with  anywhere :  and  a  more  faithful,  patient,  judicious, 
persevering  and  successful  teacher  could  not  be  desired 
in  an}'  school  or  college.  A  thorough  enthusiast'  in  his 
professional  studies  and  pursuits,  it  was  his  chief  delight 
to  acquire  knowledge,  and  to  impart  it  to  his  pupils. 
Amiable,  gentle,  respectful — never  abrupt,  harsh  or  re- 
pulsive— always  accessible  and  cheerfully  communica- 
tive— meek,  humble,  sincere — abounding  in  works  of 
charity  and  goodness — he  calmly  fell  asleep,  in  the  full 
assurance  of  a  happy  resurrection  and  a  glorious  immor- 


*  George  T.  Bo  wen  was  born  March  19,  1803,  at  Providence  in 
Rhode  Island  ;  and  was  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1 822.  He  was 
here  elected  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  autumn  of  182.5.  He  en- 
tered upon  the  duties  of  his  office  March  6,  1826.  He  died  October 
25,  1828,  in  the  26th  year  of  his  age. 


544  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

tality,  through  faith  in  the  merits  and  atoning  sacrifice 
of  tlie  Son  of  God,  in  whose  name  he  had  been  baptized 
in  infancy,  and  to  whose  service  his  Hfe  had  been  de- 
voutly consecrated."'' 

But  a  still  more  recent  and  most  afflictive  bereave- 
ment must  be  the  subject  of  our  present  discourse  and 
sorrowful  meditations.  A  few  weeks  ago,  the  University 
and  the  citizens  of  Nashville  were  summoned  to  pay  the 
last  sad  tribute  of  respect  to  the  remains  of  the  venerable 
Professor  Troost.  No  similar  event  has,  probably,  ever 
created  a  greater  sensation  in  this  community-,  or  called 
forth  a  more  general  or  generous  expression  of  feeling, 
sympathy  and  regret.  We  all  felt  and  acknowledged 
that  our  loss  was  irreparable  j  and  that  we  should  never 
look  upon  his  like  again. 

In  speaking  here  of  such  a  man,  I  feel  both  the  deli- 
cacy of  my  position,  and  my  inabilitj^  to  meet  the  de- 
mands of  the  occasion.  Could  I  have  foreseen  that  this 
melancholy  dut}^  would  so  soon,  or  even  ever,  have  de- 
volved upon  me,  I  would  have  eagerly  embraced  the 
many  opportunities  which  a  daily  intercourse  afforded, 
of  learning  from  the  lips  of  my  venerated  friend,  the 
most  remarkable  incidents  of  his  somewhat  eventful  life 
and   varied   fortunes.      I   would    have   inquired    more 


*  James  Hamilton  was  a  native  of  Princeton,  N.  J.,  and  was  gradu- 
ated at  the  college  there  in  1814.  He  was  highly  distinguished  as  a 
classical  and  mathematical  teacher  in  Trenton  and  Burlington,  N.  J. 
He  was  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy  in  the 
University  of  Nashville  sixteen  years,  at  three  several  periods.  He 
died  of  cholera,  June  21,  1849. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  545 

minutely  about  the  course  and  progress  of  his  studies; 
the  character  and  number  of  his  publications;  and  what- 
ever else  might  contribute  to  a  fair  biographical  notice 
or  decent  obituary.  Though  for  a  year  past,  it  was 
obvious  that  his  physical  strength  was  gradually'  dimi- 
nishing under  the  weight  of  years  and  of  a  painful 
chronic  disease ;  yet  so  calm,  so  cheerful,  so  uncomplain- 
ing, was  his  habit,  that  I  did  not,  could  not  realize  that 
his  days  were  already  numbered  and  his  work  accom- 
plished. I  beheld  him  speechless  and  dying  before  I 
dreamed  of  any  immediate  danger  —  much  less  of  so 
sudden  a  dissolution. 

The  few  facts  and  circumstances  which  I  have  since 
collected  from  other  sources,  may  be  soon  told.  The  in- 
formation expected  from  his  brother  in  Missouri,  and 
which,  it  was  hoped,  would  be  ample  and  satisfactory. 
has  not  yet  been  received.* 

Dr.  Gerard  Troost  was  born  at  Bois-Le-Duc,  in  Hol- 
land, March  15,  1776.  He  died  August  14,  1850,  aged 
74  years  and  five  months.  He  was  educated  in  the 
schools  and  universities  of  his  native  country — chiefly  at 
Leyden  and  Amsterdam.  He  appears,  at  an  early  pe- 
riod, to  have  manifested  a  zealous  devotion  to  Chemistry 
and  Natural  History;  and  more  especiall}^  to  the  then 
infant  sciences  of  Geology  and  Mineralogy. 

In  1801,  the  College  of  Amsterdam  (Collegium  quod 
Civium  Amstelodamensium  saluti  prospicit,)  conferred 
upon   him,   after  a   strict   examination,   the   degree   of 


*  Dr.  Beuoit  Troost,  Kansas,  Missouri. 
35 


546  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

•'Master  in  Pharmacy,"  (in  arte  Pharmaceutica  Magis- 
trum, — as  his  diploma  has  it.)  *  *  *  "Accurate  cum 
in  Latina  lingua,  Plantis,  caeterisque  simplicibus,  et 
varia  ex  his  componendi  mode,  ut  et  in  Theoria  Chemico- 
Pharmaceutica  examinavimus ;  et  qure  ex  lege  requi- 
runtur  ab  eo  composita  Galenica,  et  Chemica  medica- 
menta  confici  vidimus.  In  quibus  omnibus  cum  peri- 
tiam  suam  et  dexteritatem  sufficienter  probasset,  quern 
petebat,  in  arte  Pharmaceutica  Magistri  titulum  lubentes 
concessimus,"  etc. — [Copied  from  his  Diploma.] 

Thus  declaring  him  duly  qualified  and  authorized  to 
practise  as  a  pJiarmacist  [or  pharmaceutist.]  We  must 
not  confound  this  profession  with  that  of  the  ordinary 
druggist  or  apothecary  in  our  own  country. 

Pharmacy  [or  pharmaceutics]  is  the  art  of  preserving, 
preparing,  compounding,  and  combining  substances  for 
medical  purposes.  As  these  substances  may  be  mineral, 
vefietable  or  animal,  theoretical  pharmacy  requires  a 
knowledge  of  botany,  zoology  and  mineralogy;  and  as  it 
is  necessary  to  determine  their  properties,  and  the  laws 
of  their  composition  and  decomposition,  a  thorough 
mastery  of  practical  or  experimental  chemistry  is  equally 
indispensable.  The  preparation  of  medicines  was  an- 
ciently performed  by  the  physicians  themselves,  who 
also  administered  them  to  their  patients.  It  became  a 
distinct  branch  of  medical  science  at  Alexandria  in 
Egypt,  some  300  years  before  the  Christian  era.  And 
in  most  enlightened  countries  since,  it  has  been  regarded 
as  worthy  of  special  governipental  regulation  and  en- 
courairement.     Pharmacv  too,  like  its  parent  or  sister 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  547 

art  of  medicine,  has  followed  the  fortunes  of  science  and 
the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  the  people. 

The  medical  reforms  of  Paracelsus,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  introduced  important  changes  into  pharmacy. 
Many  chemical  preparations  were  adopted;  and  the  use 
of  mineral  specifics,  as,  for  example,  antimony  and  mer- 
cury, became  more  common.  Still,  the  operations  were 
conducted  without  reference  to  scientific  principles :  but, 
since  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  natural 
sciences  have  continued  to  make  steady  progress;  and 
pharmacy,  as  well  as  medicine,  has  experienced  the  effects 
of  the  improvement.  So  that  the  practice  of  pharmacy 
is  regarded  in  several  European  States,  not  only  as  a 
learned  and  liberal  profession,  but  as  a  highly  responsible 
trust  or  office.  The  degree,  therefore,  of  Master  of  Phar- 
macy, or  Doctor  in  that  art,  as  our  colleges  would  express 
it,  implied  no  ordinary  scientific  attainments  and  moral 
qualifications.  It  would  be  well  for  this  and  every  other 
country,  were  the  vocation  placed  by  law  and  usage 
upon  an  equally  elevated  basis  with  that  of  the  regular 
physician. 

Dr.  Troost,  it  is  understood,  practised,  as  a  pharmacist, 
both  at  Amsterdam  and  at  the  Hague  —  though  for  a 
brief  period.  As  we  find  him  soon  after  at  liome  in  Paris; 
and  familiar  with  its  language,  and  its  immense  reposi- 
tories of  nature  and  art.  He  was,  for  several  years,  a 
pupil  and  companion  of  the  celebrated  Abb^  Rene  Just 
Hawy, — the  author  of  a  new  system  of  Crystallograi^hy 
•^in  fact,  the  founder  of  the  modern  or  present  school 
of  mineralogy.     For   this  distinguished    and   most   ex- 


548  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

cellent  man,  he  ever  cherished  a  filial,  grateful  and 
affectionate  respect.  He  here  translated  into  the  Dutch 
language,  one  of  the  earlier  works  ["The  Aspects  of 
Nature,"]  of  Alexander  Humboldt,  [a  copy  of  which  he 
has  since  presented  to  our  college  library.]  For  this 
service  he  received  the  cordial  thanks  of  the  author: 
with  whom  he  maintained  a  friendly  correspondence  to 
the  last. 

About  1809,  he  Avas  appointed  by  the  King  of  Holland 
one  of  a  scientific  corps  to  accompany  a  naval  expedition 
to  Java.  The  English  effectually  prevented  the  sailing 
of  the  Dutch  fleet:  and  it  became  necessary  either  to 
relinquish  the  scientific  enterprise  or  to  devise  some 
other  mode  of  conveyance.  In  order  to  escape  capture 
by  the  British  during  the  long  sea-voyage,  he  embarked 
for  New  York  or  Philadelphia  in  an  American  vessel,  to 
seek  a  passage  thence  to  the  East  Indies  under  the  pro- 
tection of  our  then  neutral  flag.  Soon  after  his  arrival 
here,  Louis  Napoleon  abdicated  or  resigned  the  crown  of 
Holland,  [July  1,  1810;]  and  that  kingdom  was  by  the 
imperial  decree  of  July  10,  1810,  incorporated  with  the 
French  empire.  Java  too,  in  the  following  year  [1811,] 
surrendered  to  the  British  arms,  and  ceased  to  be  a  part 
of  the  Dutch  colonial  possessions,  until  the  general  resto- 
ration of  1814. 

In  these  circumstances.  Dr.  Troost  resolved  to  remain 
in  this  country,  and  to  become  an  American  citizen. 
He  first  settled  in  Philadelphia — where  he  assisted  in 
forming  the  American  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  in 
1812;  and  of  which  he  was  several  years  the  President. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  549 

Here  he  was  occupied  in  scientifiic  investigations,  or  in 
the  direct  apphcation  of  s^cience  to  practical  purposes. 
Near  the  close  of  the  late  war  with  England,  he  engaged 
with  others  in  the  manufacture  of  alum  near  x^nnapolis 
in  Maryland— the  first  of  the  kind  ever  attempted  in 
the  United  States.  In  this  connection,  owing  to  the 
failure  of  the  proprietors,  he  was  a  great  sufferer  in  a 
pecuniary  point  of  view. 

He  then  returned  to  Philadelphia;  where  he  Avas  ap- 
pointed Professor  of  Mineralogy  in  the  Philadelphia 
Museum,  1821.  He  there  delivered  public  lectures  upon 
that  science,  and  also  upon  chemistry  at  the  Philadelphia 
College  of  Pharmacy.  He  made  sundry  geological  ex- 
cursions into  New  Jersey,  New  York,  and  other  interest- 
ing localities  in  the  vicinity. 

He  removed,  in  company  with  Thomas  Say,  William 
Maclure  and  others,  to  New  Harmony  [Indiana,]  in  1825, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  then  reputed  philanthropist, 
Robert  Owen.  He  soon  became  dissatisfied  with  Mr. 
Owen's  impracticable  novelties  and  peculiar  social  ar- 
rangements. He  thence  removed,  with  his  family  and 
mineral  treasures,  to  Nashville  in  1827.  Here  has  been 
his  quiet  and  pleasant  home  ever  since. 

He  was  appointed  Professor  of  Chemistry,  Geology 
and  Mineralogy  in  the  University  of  NashviUe  in  1828; 
and  State  Geologist  m  December,  1831.  The  latter  ap- 
pointment was  renewed  at  every  biennial  session  of  the 
Legislature  until  the  last :— when  that  very  economical 
body  abolished  or  discontinued  the  office. 

1.  State  Geologist.    How  largely  the  State  of  Tennes- 


550  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

see  is  indebted  to  him  for  geologiccal  surveys  and  learned 
reports — towards  the  discovery  and  development  of  her 
mineral  wealth — cannot  be  conjectured,  much  less  appre- 
ciated. And  yet,  how  cheaply  gained!  How  meagre 
the  pittance  doled  out,  by  the  representatives  of  the 
million,  to  the  master  mind  employed  to  enrich  them 
all !  Several  of  our  sister  States  have  been  more  liberal, 
or  rather,  less  unjust,  towards  their  respective  Geologists. 
Though  none  could  boast  of  a  more  accomplished,  or 
more  faithful  labourer,  either  in  the  field,  or  at  the  desk, 
or  in  the  laboratory.  A  few  centuries  ago,  the  services 
of  a  public  benefactor  might  have  been  undervalued  or 
ignorantly  denounced,  without  exciting  surprise,  and 
withont  the  consciousness  even  of  wrong-doing.  A 
Roger  Bacon,  a  Wickliffe,  a  Columbus,  a  Galileo,  have 
conferred  [an  inglorious]  immortality  upon  nations  and 
ages  of  stolidity,  barbarism,  ingratitude  and  bigotry. 
But  the  illuminated  nineteenth  ought  not  to  be  equally 
tolerant  of  similar  abuses. 

Were  I  to  indulge  the  sarcastic  vein  or  give  vent  to  an 
honest  indignation,  I  might  contrast  the  impudent,  domi- 
neering, selfish,  swaggering,  successful  career  of  the 
brazen-faced  and  iron-hearted  popular  demagogue,  with 
the  calm,  subdued,  patient,  humble,  retiring,  modest 
carriage  of  the  laborious  philosophical  pioneer,  who  is 
working  out  the  great  problem  of  human  advancement, 
and  expending  the  rarest  and  richest  faculties  in  the 
gratuitous  promotion  of  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of 
his  brother  man.  I  might  tell  of  the  sneers  and  scoft- 
ings  and  ridicule  to  which  he  is  often  subjected — to  the 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  551 

neglect,  poverty,  suffering,  privation  and  even  positive 
persecution  which  await  him — to  the  cold,  heartless, 
calculating,  mis-named  economy,  which  crushes  his  spirit, 
and  sometimes  places  upon  his  honoured  head  the  crown 
of  martjrdom.  The  Naturalist,  even  now  is  almost 
everywhere  regarded,  by  the  vulgar  as  a  dreaming  vision- 
ary or  puerile  enthusiast  —  without  common  sense  or 
rational  ambition.  His  priceless  collections  of  stones, 
minerals,  fossils,  plants,  animals,  is  gravely  pronounced 
a  humbug:  and  the  office  of  State  Geologist  is  inconti- 
^  nently  voted  a  sinecure  or  nuisance.*  But  I  forbear  all 
such  invidious  comparisons  and  criminating  insinuations. 

*  Of  William  Maclure,  it  is  related  that:  "When  travelling  in 
some  remote  districts,  the  unlettered  inhabitants  seeing  him  engaged 
in  breaking  the  rocks  with  his  hammer,  supposed  him  to  be  a  lunatic 
who  had  escaped  from  confinement ;  and  on  one  occasion,  as  he  drew 
near  a  public  house,  the  inmates,  being  informed  of  his  approach, 
took  refuge  in  doors,  and  closing  the  entrance  held  a  parley  from  the 
windows,  until  they  were  at  length  convinced  that  the  stranger  could 
be  safely  admitted." 

Incidents  of  this  kind,  and  many  others  which  occurred  to  him, 
appear  to  have  influenced  the  following  remarks  in  the  Preface  to  his 
Geology:  "All  inquiry  into  the  nature  and  properties  of  rocks,  or  the 
relative  situation  they  occupy  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  has  been 
much  neglected.  It  is  only  since  a  few  years  that  it  has  been  thought 
worth  the  attention  of  either  the  learned  or  unlearned ;  and  even  now 
a  great  proportion  of  both  treat  such  investigations  with  contempt,  as 
beneath  their  notice.  Why  mankind  should  have  so  long  neglected  to 
acquire  knowledge  so  useful  to  the  progress  of  civilization — why  the 
substances  over  which  they  have  been  daily  stumbling,  and  without 
whose  aid  they  could  not  exercise  any  one  art  or  profession,  should 
be  the  last  to  occupy  their  attention — is  one  of  those  problems  perhaps 
only  to  be  solved  by  an  analysis  of  the  nature  and  origin  of  the  power 
of  the  few  over  the  many."  [Memoir  of  William  Maclure,  by  Samuel 
George  Morton,  M.U.,  pp.  11,  12.] 


552  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Our  late  worthy  friend  was  never  friendless ;  nor  was  ho 
ever  the  inmate  of  a  debtor's  prison  or  of  the  Holy  In- 
quisitors' dungeon.  He  lived  and  died,  esteemed  and 
honoured  and  lamented  by  the  wisest  and  best  of  his 
contemporaries. 

2.  College  Professor.  As  a  college  professor,  he  was 
diligent,  exemplary,  punctual,  and  eminently  instinctive. 
He  was  always  thoroughly  prepared  for  lecture,  experi- 
ment, and  familiar  illustration,  at  the  appointed  hour. 
Master  of  his  theme,  and  felicitous  in  his  manner  of 
exhibiting  the  dry  details  and  subtile  mysteries  of^ 
science,  he  could  not  fail  to  interest  such  of  his  pupils 
as  w^ere  disposed  to  profit  by  his  teachings.  That  the 
number  of  these  should  have  been  so  exceedingly  small, 
is  matter  of  profound  regret.  He,  indeed,  spared  no 
pains  or  efforts  to  awaken  a  spirit  of  inquiry  and  to 
create  a  proper  enthusiasm  in  behalf  of  his  favourite 
studies.  The  fruits  of  his  labours  are  yet  to  be  gathered 
by  more  fortunate  successors.  Learned  foreigners  and 
other  strangers  from  the  far-off  East,  when  visiting  the 
veteran  sage  and  sun^eying  his  splendid,  rare  and  costly 
museum,  have  expressed  astonishment,  that  he  was  not 
daily  surrounded  by  scores  and  hundreds  of  eager,  at- 
tentive, devoted  disciples.  Here  then  is  proof,  if  proof 
were  needed,  that  unquestioned  merit  of  the  highest 
order,  does  not  alwa3^s  and  everywhere — not  even  among 
the  enlightened  fathers  and  chivalrous  sons  of  Tennessee 
— command  the  reverence  and  patronage  w^hicli  might 
be  justly  claimed  or  reasonably  anticipated.  No  college, 
within  the  wide  range  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  I  ven- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  553 

ture  to  assert,  lias  ever  provided  such  able  and  ample 
means  of  instruction  in  the  natural  and  experimental 
sciences,  as  the  University  of  Nashville  has  possessed 
and  cheapl}'  proffered  to  the  public  for  more  than  twenty 
years  past.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  defects  or 
faults  or  vices  of  the  institution  in  other  respects — and 
for  these  I  am  no  apologist — still,  it  has  had  no  superior, 
no  equal,  in  the  grand  departments  of  Chemistry,  Mine- 
ralogy and  Geology.  How  many  youth  have  been  at- 
tracted hither  solely  or  chiefly  with  a  view  to  proficiency 
in  all  or  any  of  them?  Probably  not  a  dozen,  or  even 
the  half  of  that  number.*'^  While  devout  pifgrims  from 
distant  lands  have  come  to  do  homage  to  the  renowned 
Professor,  our  own  Western  youth  seem  not  to  have  been 
aware  that  a  prophet  was  in  their  midst.  By  all  the 
actual  students  of  the  University  since  1828,  and  espe- 
cially by  the  graduates,  his  memory  will  be  reverently 
and  affectionately  cherished.  Whatever  considerations 
may  have  allured  them  to  the  University  in  the  first 
instance,  or  however  indifferent  any  of  them  may  have 
been  to  his  instructions,  he  will  ever  be  gratefully  asso- 
ciated with  all  their  reminiscences  of  college  life.  He 
was  so  good,  so  kind,  so  patient,  so  indulgent,  so  fatherly 
— he  can  never  be  forgotten  or  cease  to  be  honoured. 
However  discouraging  may  have  been  the  aspect  of  his 
little  auditor}^,  he  performed  his  duty  faithfully,  gene- 
rously, and  even  hopefully,  to  the  last. 

3.  As  A  Philosopher.     Let  us  view  him,  for  a  mo- 

*  Scarcely  any  students  ever  entered  for  the  express  purpose  of 

cultivating  the  above  sciences. 


654  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

ment,  as  a  philosoplier ;  for  such  he  truly  was.  -As  a 
devotee  to  science — as  a  successful  student  and  inter- 
preter of  nature — as  a  discriminating,  sagacious,  inde- 
fatigable, cautious  searcher  after  truth  —  he  had  few 
equals.  He  arrived  at  no  crude  or  novel  conclusions 
hastily.  He  did  not  generalize  from  doubtful  or  insuffi- 
cient facts.  He  assumed  no  premises  or  data  without 
proof  Anomalous  or  extraordinary  phenomena  did  not 
startle  him,  or  prompt  the  premature  utterance  of  a  new 
theory,  or  the  claim  to  a  grand  discovery.  He  patiently 
revised,  restudied,  re-examined;  analyzed  and  experi- 
mented; extended  his  inquiries  and  investigations;  until 
he  could  speak  to  the  public  with  a  satisfied  conviction 
of  the  certainty  and  value  of  his  discoveries  and  deduc- 
tions. 

It  would  require  a  thorough  and  minute  acquaintance 
with  his  favourite  and  habitual  pursuits — such  as  I  do 
not  pretend  to,  and  such  as  few  possess — in  order  to 
specify,  or  to  render  intelligible,  the  character  or  amount 
of  his  attainments,  or  of  his  contributions  to  human 
knowledge  and  general  philosophy.  With  the  three 
great  kingdoms  of  nature — animal,  vegetable,  mineral — 
he  was  more  or  less  intimately  conversant.  He  had 
read,  I  believe,  every  authority,  book  and  treatise  upon 
natural  science;  from  those  of  Aristotle,  Theophrastus 
and  Pliny,  down  to  the  last  elaborate  volume  of  his  old 
friend,  the  octogenarian  Humboldt,  and  the  latest  lively 
hroclmre  of  his  youthful  correspondent,  Agassiz. 

He  was,  of  course,  au  fait  in  the  history  of  science. 
Familiar  with  all   the   stages  and  changes  of  its   pro- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  000 

gress — with  the  conflicting  theories,  schools  and  systems — 
Avith  the  diverse  modes  of  classification  and  nomencla- 
ture adopted  and  rejected — Avith  all,  indeed,  that  had 
been  achieved  in  every  field  or  department  of  natural  or 
empirical  philosophy.  So  that  he  could  not  be  easily- 
imposed  on  by  any  apparent  novelty  or  by  any  pretended 
discovery.  Not  content,  hoAvever,  Avith  learning  Avhat 
others  could  teach,  he  Avas  constantly  engaged  in  ex- 
ploring unknoAvn  territory,  for  the  extension  and  en- 
largement of  human  knoAvledge. 

Of  his  published  Avritings,  I  cannot  furnish  even  an 
outline.  They  consist  chiefly  of  translations,  of  commu- 
nications to  scientific  journals  and  learned  societies,  or  of 
occasional  pamphlets  and  geological  reports.  The  result 
of  his  latest  researches  Avas  embodied  in  a  monograph, 
carefully  prepared  for  the  press,  and  forAvarded  to  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  at  Washington,  for  publication, 
only  a  fcAv  Aveeks  before  his  death.  It  is  a  treatise  upon 
the  rare  and  hitherto  undescribed  encrinites  of  Tennessee 
— Avith  accurate  and  beautiful  draAA^ngs,  executed  by  an 
accomplished  artist  of  our  cit}^  from  the  original  speci- 
mens in  the  Doctor's  cabinet.  This  Avill  prove  a  real 
acquisition  to  science;  and  Avill  add  much,  it  is  believed, 
to  the  reputation  of  its  author.  This  Avas  his  last  labour 
of  love  in  liis  chosen  field :  and  in  its  elaboration,  he  ex- 
pended the  feeble  remnant  of  his  declining  age  and 
health.  He  gradually  Avasted  aA\^ay,  still  at  his  post — 
for  he  Avas  at  Avork  in  his  laboratory  only  forty-eight 
hours  before  he  ceased  to  breathe — Avith  a  mind  unim- 
paired, though  Avith  physical  strength  scarcely  adequate 


556  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

to  the  slightest  exertion.  He  died  almost  pen  in  hand ; 
and,  we  trust,  with  glorious  visions  of  the  beautiful  world 
which  its  beneficent  Creator  had  enabled  him  so  long  to 
study  and  admire,  as  the  product  and  evidence  of  infinite 
wisdom,  power  and  goodness. 

He  was  a  member — regular,  honorary  or  corresponding 
— of  most  of  the  Scientific  and  Philosophical  Societies  in 
Europe  and  America.  Numerous  testimonials  of  the 
high  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  by  these  learned 
associations  and  by  the  whole  scientific  world,  might  be 
readily  furnished,  were  it  necessary,  or  rather,  not  super- 
fluous, on  the  present  occasion. 

As  a  philosopher,  without  arrogance,  pride  or  preten- 
sion, he  pursued  the  noiseless  tenor  of  his  way ;  free  from 
envy,  jealousy  or  ungenerous  rivalry.  He  knew  how  to 
defend  truth  and  to  maintain  his  own  opinions,  without 
decending  to  personal  controversy  or  wounding  the  amour 
propre  of  his  opponents.  He  conceded  to  others  the 
intellectual  rights  and  immunities  which  he  claimed 
for  himself.  He  did  full  justice  to  the  merits  of  his 
brethren,  and  rejoiced  in  their  success  and  prosperity. 
He  was  ever  ready  to  counsel,  instruct  and  assist  all 
sincere  inquirers;  and  to  mark  out  for  them  the  road 
to  fame  and  fortune.  His  very  nature  was  so  guileless 
and  unselfish,  that,  occasionally  perhaps,  he  was  imposed 
on  by  the  crafty  and  insidious,  who  craved  his  instruc- 
tions for  no  very  honourable  purposes. 

For  every  species  of  sciolism,  quackery,  and  ignorant 
assumption  or  rude  presumption,  however,  he  manifested 
a  dignified  neglect  or  silent  aversion.     In  extreme  cases, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  557 

he  could  administer  a  becomingly  stern  rebuke.  He  had 
no  particular  fancy  for  .the  schoolmaster  or  professor 
who  could  teach  all  languages,  ancient  and  modern, 
together  with  all  the  sciences ;  and  write  newspaper  plar 
giarisms  upon  lunar  rainbows,  and  orthodox  cosmogo- 
nies in  accordance  with  the  dicta  of  Moses,  De  Luc,  and 
Cuvier.*  He  well  understood,  and  could  expose,  the  entire 
process  of  deception  resorted  to.  How  easy  to  make  a 
pompous  flourish  and  display  before  an  assemblage  of 
laughing  little  schoolgirls  or  mischievous  dozy  sopho- 
mores, by  mouthing  off,  in  sonorous  style  and  with 
appropriate  magisterial  solemnity,  any  amount  of  for- 
eign gibberish  or  technical  jargon,  borrowed  from  Babel 
or  the  lexicon,  for  that  special  purpose !  How  easy  too, 
is  it  to  astonish  the  natives  by  a  newspaper  column  of 
geological  feldspar  and  horneblende,  stolen  from  Lyell 
or  the  Penny  Cyclopaedia!  What  a  profound  Solomon 
does  not  the  writer  speedily  become  in  the  estimation  of 
his  fellow  villagers !  He  is  forthwith  the  very  man  for 
State  Geologist,  or  for  the  presidency  of  the  new  college, 
that  is  soon  to  eclipse  all  others  in  the  Commonwealth ! 
I  have  lately  read,  in  one  of  our  city  papers,  a  school 
prospectus,  heralded,  as  usual,  by  a  half  dozen  editorial 
commendations,  in  which  a  single  Yankee  promises  to 
teach  more  languages  and  sciences  than  any  score  of 
modest  Newtons,  Porsons,  Davys,  Bucklands  or  Brews- 
ters  would  venture  to  attempt ! 


*  The  audience  readily  understood  the  allusion  here  made  to  certain 
advertisements  and  essays  which  had  recently  appeared  in  some  of  the 
Nashville  gazettes. 


558  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Now  our  lamented  friend  could  not  countenance  such 
egregious  charlatanry,  nor  tolerate  any  specimen  of  the 
genus.  He  deplored  the  prevalence  of  this  imposing  and 
insolent  superficiality,  and  argued  no  good  to  the  cause 
of  genuine  science  from  its  increasing  popularity.  Were 
a  man  to  advertise  himself  as  duly  qualified  and  pre- 
pared to  practise  all  the  learned  j^rofessions  or  a  dozen 
or  two  of  the  mechanical  trades,  I  suppose  he  would 
be  pitied  as  a  lunatic,  or  denounced  as  an  impostor 
or  vain  braggart.  But  when  he  proclaims  his  compe- 
tency to  teach  all  that  is  known  or  knowable  in  science 
and  literature,  he  is,  without  hesitation,  taken  by  the 
hand,  trusted,  patronized  and  enriched  by  a  credulous 
pubhc — especially  if  warranted  by  the  customary  pre- 
paid newspaper  puff  extraordinary — though  he  may  not 
be  master  of  his  own  vernacular  or  of  vulgar  arithmetic 
to  the  Rule  of  Three!  Whether  this  be  a  disease  or 
foll}^  peculiar  to  the  West,  I  have  not  inquired.  The 
sooner  we  get  rid  of  it,  the  better  for  us  and  our  chil- 
dren. It  is  humiliating  to  see  how  cant,  and  twaddle, 
and  bluster,  and  puffing,  and  effrontery,  and  ostentatious 
egotism  abound  and  flourish  and  succeed  amongst  us. 

It  is  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world  to  get  up  a  popular 
lecture  about  Geology  or  Chemistry  or  Mesmerism  or 
Phrenology  or  Engineering  or  Magnetism  or  Electricity 
or  Architecture,  or  ahout  any  other  science,  art  or  mys- 
tery; and  that  too,  without  the  slightest  acquaintance 
with  the  elements  or  first  principles  of  one  of  them. 
This  is  done  everywhere  by  travelling  or  occasional  lec- 
turers.   Hundreds  of  this  class  would  have  triumphantly 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  559 

borne  away  the  palm,  by  acclamation,  from  our  late  un- 
pretending Professor,  in  the  very  departments  of  nature 
which  he  loved  and  cultivated  beyond  all  fair  rivalry  or 
competition.  He  Avould  have  stood  no  chance  of  victory 
on  trial  with  flippant,  strutting,  obtrusive,  thievish,  jaclc- 
daw  impudence,  arrayed  in  peojcoch  finery,  and  all  made 
up  and  rigged  out  for  the  exhibition,  and  for  the  especial 
divertisement  of  his  most  select  auditory  of  fashionable 
ladies  and  gentlemen.  Not  he.  He  would  have  been 
voted  a  hove,  or  mere  proser,  by  those  who  laud  the  other 
to  the  skies. 

In  these  allusions,  comparisons  and  contrasts,  I  am 
not  digressing  very  far  from  my  proper  theme.  It  w^as 
in  reference  to  such  abuses  and  absurdities,  that  Dr. 
Troost  seemed  ever  to  be  much  excited,  or  to  suffer  the 
calm  philosophical  temperament  of  his  kindly  nature  to 
be  ruffled.  Upon  these,  I  have  often  heard  him  dis- 
course strongly,  freely,  indignantly.  Not  because  he 
fancied  himself  to  be  slighted  or  wronged :  far  from  it. 
It  was  the  injury,  the  insult,  the  opprobrium,  thus  in- 
flicted upon  science  —  sacred  science  —  that  roused  his 
spirit  and  provoked  his  resentment. 

This  enormous  system  of  swindling  quackery  might 
and  ought  to  be  put  down  by  the  omnipotent  periodical 
press.  Newspaper  editors  create  and  destroy  at  pleasure. 
They  make  our  rulers,  and  rule  them  wlien  made.  They 
manufacture  public  opinion  and  individual  reputation. 
They  are  the  only  recognized  self-appointed  guardians  of 
the  people's  rights  and  of  the  people's  conscience.  They 
are  ex-officio  judges,  critics,  censors,  of  all  public  officers 


660  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

from  the  President  to  the  town  constable,  of  all  authors 
from  Homer  to  Carlyle,  of  all  institutions  and  professions, 
of  all  discoveries  and  inventions,  of  all  projects  and 
enterprises.  They  are  the  arbiters  of  fashion,  morals 
and  manners  —  of  taste,  art,  refinement,  and  all  the 
j)roprieties  of  social  life.  They  puff  theatre,  church, 
school  or  college;  according  to  the  dictates  of  purse  or 
conscience — their  conscience  being  understood  to  he  at 
the  bottom  of  their  purse.  The  Saturday  night's  inimi- 
table "bright,  particular  star,"'  and  the  Sunday  morning's 
graceful  popular  preacher,  share  alike  their  disinterested 
and  judicious  favours.  They  are  privileged,  by  common 
consent,  to  write  about  everybody  and  everything — de 
omni  scibili,  et  quihusdam  aliis.  And  their  sentence  of 
ajDproval  or  reprobation  is  duh"  ratified  by  their  gTave 
and  independent  readers.  Their  utterances  are  deemed 
oracular,  and  worthy  of  implicit  acceptation.  They  are 
popes  all  —  and  the  onl}'  living  popes  whose  hnlls  are 
never  dishonoured, — though  their  liUs  often  are  I  They 
are  infallible  in  their  judgments  and  edicts — as  no  Roman 
Pontiff  ever  was,  is,  or  will  be.  That  they  should  dogma- 
tize stoutly,  and  affirm  boldly,  and  decide  promptly,  and 
arrogate  largely — is  a  matter  of  course.  The  editorial 
tripod  is  the  seat  of  inspiration  as  well  as  of  honour. 
And  wo  to  the  luckless  wight,  who  shall  become  ob- 
noxious to  the  frowns  of  a  tribunal  from  which  there  lies 
no  appeal. 

I  find  no  fault  with  this  established  constitutional  pre- 
eminence and  paramount  authority  or  absolute  supremacy 
of  the  press ;  or  with  its  upright,  impartial,  all-knowing, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  OGl 

dignified,  conservative,  acconiplislied  and  most  li))eral 
conductors.  I  make  no  complaint  on  this  score.  I  con- 
cede omniscience  and  infallibility,  however,  to  no  other 
caste  or  clique  or  fraternity'  amongst  us.  And  I  now  re- 
spectfully bespeak  their  seasonable  and  potent  interposi- 
tion to  annihilate  the  claims  and  pretensions  of  all  rival 
adventurers.  Let  the  wordy  pedant  and  the  brainless 
pedagogue,  the  bullying  empiric  and  smattering  sciolist, 
and  all  others  who  profess  to  Avork  miracles  or  to  achieve 
impossibilities  in  the  divine  art  of  education,  be  made 
forthwith  to  know  and  to  occupy  their  appropriate  rank 
and  sphere.  Do  this,  gentlemen  editors,  and  we  will  sing 
pwans,  loud  and  long,  in  your  praise  and  to  your  honour. 
And  may  you  live  and  reign  a  thousand  years !  and  still 
find  upon  your  banners  esto  perpetua  as  bright  and  cheer- 
ing as  at  this  present  most  auspicious  deliverance !  !* 

4.  His  Cabinets,  Library,  etc.  A  Avord  about  the 
Doctor's  extensive  and  diversified  cabinets  for  the  illus- 
tration of  Natural  History,  might  be  expected  along  with 
our  notice  of  him  as  a  philosopher  and  instructor.  Am* 
enumeration  or  description,  however,  would  fail  to  be 
intelligible  or  satisfactory.  It  has  often  Ijeen  asked, 
when,  where,  how,  did  he  contrive  to  amass  so  choice  a 
treasure  of  rare,  curious  and  costly  specimens  both  of 
nature  and  art?  Such  a  collection,  indeed,  as  can  hardly 
be  found  in  a  half  dozen  of  our  largest  cities  or  oldest 
universities?  For  he  had  accumulated  specimens  not 
onlv  of  the  well-known  minerals,  rocks  and  fossils,  but 


*  Scottice  for  delivery  or  utterance. 
36 


562  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

of  numbers  discovered  by  himself — of  new  species  of 
crinoidea  and  other  organic  remains  so  abundant  through- 
out the  West,  together  with  not  a  few  hitherto  unde- 
scribed  birds,  serpents,  fishes,  and  especially  the  testa- 
ceous mollusks  of  our  rivers — as  well  as  anatomical  and 
botanical  preparations,  in  various  forms,  all  well  adapted 
to  the  purposes  of  the  lecturer  and  teacher — to  say 
nothing  of  his  every-day  chemical  operations,  for  which 
he  was  amply  supplied.  His  library  was  large  and 
judiciously  selected — abounding  not  only  in  the  standard 
works  on  science  in  several  languages,  but  also  in  valu- 
able engravings,  prints  and  lithographs.  To  account  for 
such  extraordinary  results,  we  can  only  add,  that  his 
heart  was  in  the  work — that  he  spared  neither  labour, 
nor  pains,  nor  expense,  in  the  search  and  in  the  purchase 
— and  that  his  whole  life  was  steadily  and  sagaciously 
devoted  to  the  object.*  He  commenced,  after  his  arrival 
in  this  country,  with  small  means :  for  like  his  illustrious 
masters,  Hawy  and  Cuvier,  he  had  to  struggle  with  the 
res  angusta  doml;  and  like  them  he  persevered  manfully 
against  all  obstacles,  from  less  to  more,  until  in  the  pro- 
gress of  half  a  century,  his  few  hundred  native  speci- 
mens had  increased  to  many  thousands — gathered  from 
every  locality  on  the  globe  which  science  had  explored. 
An  hour's  careful  inspection  of  his  actual  possessions, 
would  give  to  the  practised  eye  a  far  better  idea  of  their 
rarity  and  opulence  than  any  mere  verbal  description 
(^ould  convey.     Many  of  you  have  visited  his  rooms : 

*  See  Appendix. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  563 

and  you  were  not  less  surprised  at  the  variety  and  multi- 
tude of  the  curiosities  which  arrested  your  attention, 
than  charmed  with  the  graceful  urbanity  of  "the  old 
ilian  eloquent,"  who  delighted  to  tell  you  all  about  them. 
And  probably,  on  taking  leave,  you  were  more  impressed 
with  the  goodness  of  the  latter  than  with  the  magnifi- 
cence of  the  former. 

Let  us  now  contemplate  the  Doctor's  character  under 
other  aspects,  and  in  other  relations. 

1.  His  private  life  was  a  model  of  the  domestic  virtues. 
Though  a  genuine  philosopher,  he  was  no  stoic.  Though 
a  most  laborious  student,  he  was  not  a  recluse.  Though 
devoted  to  science,  and  sedulously  occupied  in  its  solitary 
investigations,  he  was  alive  to  all  the  endearments  of 
social  and  domestic  life.  Cheerful,  conversable,  joyous, 
playful,  in  the  little  family  circle  about  his  own  delight- 
ful fireside,  he  was  there  the  centre  of  attraction,  love 
and  reverence.  The  best  of  husbands  and  fathers,  his 
presence  at  home  was  always  greeted  with  a  welcome  of 
smiles  and  gladness  and  affectionate  attentions,  which  no 
mere  conventional  usage  or  prescriptive  custom  could 
have  elicited.  His  grandchildren  loved  him,  not  merely 
as  a  parent,  but  as  a  friend  and  companion.  He  possessed 
true,  simple,  native  dignity,  without  a  particle  of  aftecta- 
tion  or  mock  assumption.  He  never  appeared  to  conde- 
scend, or  to  exhibit  a  patronizing  air  and  manner,  when 
conversing  with  inferiors  in  knowledge,  age,  or  relative 
social  position.  He  was  so  affable,  so  benevolent,  so  ap- 
proachable, so  good,  that  everybody  was  at  ease  and 
happy  in  his  presence. 


564  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

He  was  a  man  of  the  world  —  a  perfectly  well-bred 
gentlemen.  He  had  travelled  and  seen  much  in  various 
countries;  and  had  been  early  and  long  familiar  with 
the  tone  and  atmosphere  and  Uenseances  of  fashionable 
and  intelligent  society.  He  had  none  of  the  stiffness, 
formality,  awkward  diffidence,  offensive  pedantry,  im- 
practicaljle  reserve,  or  mauvaise  lionte,  which  too  often 
mark  the  mere  scholar  and  render  him  unfit  for  the 
saloon  or  drawing-room.  The  savans  of  Paris,  more 
than  those  of  any  other  European  metropolis  perhaps, 
mingle  on  easy  and  equal  terms  with  the  most  select  and 
polished  aristocratic  circles  of  the  city.  From  such  a 
school,  he  came  forth  accomplished,  as  well  in  the  art  of 
pleasing,  as  in  the  science  of  the  Academy.  As  courte- 
ous in  his  bearing,  and  as  observant  of  etiquette,  in  all 
companies,  as  if  he  had  spent  his  days  in  a  palace,  rather 
than  in  a  college  or  in  the  museum  of  nature. 

Even  the  urbanity  of  his  manner  was  striking;  be- 
cause it  was  evidently  more  the  result  of  sheer  innate 
kindness  than  of  artificial  training.  No  one  ever  fancied 
that  he  had  studied  the  art  of  pleasing  or  of  being  agree- 
able; but  that  he  was  so,  because  he  couldn't  help  it. 
"  Caput  artis  est  decere  —  et  celare  artem."  You  never 
suspected  him  of  acting  a  part,  or  of  being  made  up  for 
the  occasion,  or  of  any  attempt  at  self-display  or  exhibi- 
tion. He  was  as  sincere  in  his  manners  as  in  his  morals. 
And  in  both,  he  might  serve  as  a  model,  worthy  of  all 
praise  and  of  general  imitation. 

To  say  that  he  was  an  honest  man,  I  suppose,  would 
be  regarded  as  but  common-place  among  people  who  are 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  565 

all  honest;  and  yvt  a  shrewd  etliieal  poet  has  declared 
that,  an  honest  man  is  the  noblest  work  of  God.  Dr. 
Troost  was  honest,  in  the  full  sense  of  the  poet's  sublime 
meaning.  In  all  pecuniary  transactions  and  dealings, 
he  Avas,  of  course,  punctual,  exact,  and  faithful  to  en- 
gagements. More  than  this,  he  was  honest,  just  and 
liberal  in  his  feelings,  sentiments  and  opinions,  in  his 
language  and  conduct,  towards  his  professional  brethren, 
as  well  as  towards  all  other  classes  and  individuals. 

2.  Was  lie  a  genius?  The  answer  to  this  interrogatory 
will  depend  on  the  meaning  which  we  assign  to  the  term 
genius.  If  genius  be  a  purely  creative  faculty,  such  as  is 
commonly,  though  perhaps  erroneously,  awarded  to  Ho- 
mer, Shakspeare,  Milton,  Scott,  and  Byron,  I  suppose  it 
would  not  be  conceded  to  our  late  Professor.  But  if  we 
allow  it  a  wider  and  more  comprehensive  scope,  so  as  to 
include  those  who  achieve  great  ends  by  the  legitimate 
exercise  of  their  intellectual  powers;  who  enlarge  the 
boundaries  of  science;  penetrate,  develope  and  explain 
the  mysteries  of  nature;  who,  by  persevering,  indefati- 
gable, well-directed  industr}^,  overcome  all  difiiculties 
and  obstacles;  creating  a  pathway  where  circumstances 
seemed  to  forbid  an}^  progress ;  and  reaching  the  goal  in 
spite  of  all  physical  or  conventional  impediments; — then 
was  he  a  man  of  genius.  What  was  the  genius  of  De- 
mosthenes, of  Aristotle,  of  Cicero,  of  Columbus,  of  Bacon, 
of  Galileo,  of  Newton,  of  Franklin? — Unless  it  was  the 
spirit  or  inspiration  which  impelled  them  to  icork,  work. 
WORK,  ever  and  always? — To  struggle  onward,  until 
triumphant  success  had  crowned  their  labours  and  tlieir 


566  EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES. 

names  with  a  glorious  immortality?  What  would -^Ae^ 
have  achieved  without  labour— and  such  labour  as  genius 
alone  would  have  submitted  to  or  could  have  endured? 

Having  selected  the  proper  field  of  action  or  enter- 
prise, true  genius  goes  right  ahead,  and  never  folters  or 
despairs.  Where  ordinary  men  would  be  discouraged 
and  give  over  the  pursuit  as  impracticable,  he  plods 
along,  slowly,  surely,  hopefully,  until  the  faint  rays  of 
the  distant  sun  begin  to  glimmer  through  the  darkness 
and  to  assure  him  that  broad  daylight  is  at  hand.  Im- 
jMssible  has  no  place  in  his  vocabular}'.  He  is  a  man  of 
strong  faith,  of  unfailing  self-reliance,  of  untiring  pa- 
tience, of  indomitable  moral  courage. 

But,  without  disputing  about  words,  we  may  safely 
affirm,  that  Dr.  Troost  possessed  a  philosophical  genius, 
or  precisely  the  kind  of  intellect  best  adapted  to  philoso- 
phical pursuits.  His  was  a  well-balanced  mind — vigor- 
ous, discriminating,  sagacious,  logical  and  enthusiastic. 
He  exhibited  a  sound  judgment,  as  well  as  an  ardent 
zeal,  in  the  study  and  interpretation  of  the  grand  volume 
of  Nature.  He  loved  truth,  and  eschewed  all  forms  of 
hypocrisy.  He  was  wise,  without  cunning  or  craftiness. 
He  Avas  all  that  he  professed  or  claimed  to  be.  He  ac- 
complished, in  good  faith,  whatever  he  promised. 

o.  Wcos  he  self-made?  He  was  as  much  a  self-made 
man  as  any  of  his  contemporaries  or  predecessors.  Every 
man  who  has  been  or  is  eminent  in  any  profession  or 
vocation,  was  or  is  a  self-made  man.  The  University 
alone  does  not  make  great  men,  or  even  great  scholars. 
It  merely  aids  self-exertion,  and  enables  the  young  aspi- 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  5G7 

rant  to  start  fortli  at  an  earlier  period  and  with  a  better 
outfit,  in  the  career  which  he  has  chosen:  but  every 
stej)  in  his  progress  onward  and  upward  is  his  own 
voluntary  act;  or,  in  other  words,  he  is  all  the  while  a 
self-making  man. — True  in  every  age  and  country.  We 
call  Socrates  a  self-made  man.  And  yet,  afier  he  be- 
came the  founder  and  president  of  the  most  renowned 
school  or  university  in  the  Avorld,  and  was  attended  by 
hundreds  of  admiring  pupils,  we  find  among  them  but 
one  Plato  and  one  Xenophon.  And  among  the  disciples 
of  Plato,  we  hear  of  but  one  Aristotle,  though  multitudes 
had  listened  to  his  eloquent  and  most  instructive  lectures. 
Now  Plato,  Xenophon  and  Aristotle,  wdth  all  their  supe- 
rior advantages,  were  as  truly  self-made  men,  as  had 
been  the  great  master,  Socrates. 

We  justly  admire  the  energy  and  heroism  of  the  ob- 
scure friendless  boy,  who  nobly  struggles  against  povert}-, 
neglect,  privation  and  ignorance  —  like  Heyne,  Davy. 
Arkwright,  and  hundreds  in  Europe  —  like  our  own 
Franklin,  Henry,  Sherman,  Fulton,  and  a  goodly  host 
of  others,  among  the  dead  and  the  living — but  even  the\- 
had  to  use  the  same  means  and  to  labour  in  the  same 
hishion  as  the  most  favoured  and  gifted  sons  of  the  uni- 
versity. There  is  no  royal  road  to  science  or  to  the 
temple  of  fame.  And  no  man  has  ever  yet  been  distin- 
guished for  learning  or  usefulness  without  corresponding 
industry.  I  dwell  on  this  point,  not  because  it  is  either 
questioned  or  questionable  among  competent  judges,  but 
because  the  young,  and  especially  college  students,  are 
prone  to  indulge  the  fatal  heresy,  that  genius  will  com- 


568  EDUCATIOXAL    DISCOURSES. 

mand  distinction  ^\-itliout  labour:  and,  what  is  worse, 
they  often  fancy  that  they  may  establish  a  title  to 
grenius  bv  habitual  idleness  and  an  ostentatious  neoflect 
of  text-books  and  professors.  Just  run  over  the  cata- 
logue of  illustrious  names,  ancient  and  modern,  and  j^oint 
out  one  exception,  which  you  could  honour  as  a  model 
or  would  be  ambitious  to  emulate. 

Dr.  Troost,  I  venture  to  say,  laboured  more  assidu- 
ously to  the  last — even  when  broken  down  by  age  and 
infirmities — than  any  of  his  pupils.  Had  he  relied  on 
his  genius,  rather  than  his  ability  to  labour,  he  would 
never  have  mastered  the  a,  b,  c,  of  nature,  or  contributed 
a  smgie  page  towards  its  illustration. 

4.  He  was  a  good  man.  So  numerous  and  universal, 
so  obvious  and  striking  were  the  traits  of  goodness  in  his 
daily  conversation  and  habitual  deportment,  that  no- 
thing which  we  can  say,  would  add  to  the  impression 
already  made  upon  this  entire  community.  Everybody 
Ivuows  that  Dr.  Troost  was  a  good  man :  but,  possibly, 
some  of  my  hearers  do  not  know  that  he  was  a  peace- 
maker :  that  he  manifested  his  good  will  to  men  by  em- 
bracing every  proper  occasion  to  promote  peace  and 
kindly  feeling  among  those  who  happened  to  be  at 
variance  with  one  another.*     [Here  certain  letters  were 

*  A  single  anecdote  will  sufficiently  illustrate  our  meaning.  "Who- 
ever visited  Peale's  Museum,  while  in  its  zenith  of  popular  favour, 
must  have  noticed  three  remarkable  portraits,  suspended  in  a  row 
upon  the  wall  of  the  picture  gallery,  and  looking  down  upon  the  spec- 
tator with  a  gracious  and  significant  smile,  as  much  as  to  say,  hereby 
hangs  a  tale,  or  here  is  a  legend  worth  your  hearing ;  pray  listen  to 
vour  cicerone — he  will  tell  you  about  us  three.     Our  sruide  begins : 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  569 

read  or  referred  to,  and  facts  stated,  illustrative  of  the 
Doctor's  peace-making  character.]  If  the  tree  is  known 
by  its  frnits,  if  a  man  is  to  be  judged  by  his  actions,  if 
right  conduct  is  the  outward  manifestation  of  right 
principles,  then  will  sentence  of  approbation  bi3  pro- 
nounced upon  the  moral  character  of  Dr.  Troost :  namely, 
that  he  was  an  eminently  good  man. 

5.  As  a  religionist,  he  belonged,  by  birth,  education 
and  choice,  to  the  sect  or  denomination  known  in  Hol- 
land as  Remonstrants  —  and  elsewhere  as  Arminians, 
from  their  founder,  James  Arminius,  who  died  in  1G09. 
His  followers  included  some  of  the  first  men  in  the  re- 


That,  says  he,  is  the  portrait  of  the  great  Doctor  A.,  and  that  is  the 
portrait  of  the  learued  Doctor  B.,  and  between  them  is  the  portrait  of 
the  Peace-maker,  the  good  Dr.  Troost,  whom  everybody  loves  and 
honours.  His  two  friends,  Doctors  A.  and  B.,  among  the  most  emi- 
nent physicians  of  Philadelphia,  were  at  deadly  feud  with  each  other  : 
they  not  only  were  not  on  speaking  terms,  but  a  duel  or  street-fight 

was  confidently  anticipated  by  their,  so  called,  mutual  friends. But 

this  then  scarcely  known  stranger  amongst  us — this  worthy  benevo- 
lent Dutchman,  who  had  bravely  fought,  as  a  volunteer,  in  defence  of 
his  native  country's  independence — here  in  this  city  of  brotherly  love, 
contrived  to  effect  what  none  of  our  citizens  seemed  ever  to  have 
thought  of.  In  short,  he  made  himself  acquainted  with  all  the  grounds 
of  misunderstanding  and  hostility ;  invited  the  belligerent  parties  to 
his  house  ;  made  such  explanations  and  representations  as  to  bring 
about,  not  only  a  cessation  of  arms,  but  a  perfect  reconciliation.  So 
that  Doctors  A.  and  B.  became  thenceforth  more  sincerely  attached  to 
each  other  and  to  their  common  friend,  than  is  usual  among  the  mem- 
bers of  that  faculty  in  any  circumstances.  The  two  reconciled  Doctors, 
in  commemoration  of  the  happy  event,  procured  these  three  portraits, 
placed  that  of  Dr.  Troost  in  the  centre,  and  ever  since  he  lias  been 

styled  "the  peace-maker."     [We  tell  the  tale  as  'twas  told  to  us 

merely  substituting  A  and  B  for  real  names.]  "Blessed  are  the  peace- 
makers :  for  they  sliall  be  called  the  children  of  God.'' — Matt.  v.  9. 


570  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

public  at  the  time — as  Barneveldt,  Hoogerbeets,  Gi-otius, 
etc.  The  doctrines  of  Arminius,  under  various  modifica- 
tions, prevail  at  this  day,  to  a  large  extent,  among 
churches  usually  esteemed  orthodox  and  evangelical. — 
As  in- the  English  established  church,  and  in  the  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  churches  of  all  countries.  I  am  not 
their  advocate  or  apologist;  nor  do  I  judge  or  denounce 
any  who  believe  them,  and  love  their  brother  man. 

6.  He  was  a  happy  man.  Of  course,  a  truly  good 
man  must  ever  be  a  happy  man.  The  m^ens  comcla  recti 
is  indispensable  to  inward  peace  and  habitual  tranquillity. 
The  man  of  a  bad  spirit,  of  bad  principles,  of  Ijad  con- 
duct, is  always  discontented,  irritable,  and  dissatisfied 
with  himself  and  with  the  world  around  him.  There  is 
no  peace  to  the  wicked :  and  the  way  of  [See  Isaiah  xlviii. 
22,  and  Ivii.  21.  Also  Proverbs  xiii.  15.]  transgressors  is 
hard. — While  virtue  is  its  own  best  reward.  A  con- 
tented mind  is  a  continual  feast.  A  complaining,  mo- 
rose, murmuring,  censorious,  envious,  covetous  Christian 
is  a  solecism — a  contradiction  in  terms.  And  yet,  how 
often  do  we  meet  with  men  who  make  loud  and  ostenta- 
tious professions  of  Christian  goodness,  who  nevertheless 
are  perpetually  talking  of  their  troubles  or  privations  or 
self-sacrifices,  of  their  poor  health  and  bodily  ailments, 
of  their  family  or  personal  wants,  of  harsh  treatment  by 
the  brethren  and  by  the  world,  and  of  the  general 
wickedness  of  all  mankind  except  themselves!  Now 
our  good  Doctor  had  no  affinity  or  sympathy  with  that 
large  species  of  morbid  self-tormenting,  or  proud  phari- 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  571 

saic  liumanit3\  The  smile  of  contentment  seemed  ever 
fresh  and  vivid  upon  his  benignant  countenance. 

He  had  wisely  chosen  a  genial  vocation.  Much  of 
human  weal  or  wo  depends  on  this  very  choice.  To 
prosecute  any  calling  or  business,  which  is  either  useless 
or  pernicious — however  profitable — must  be  irksome  and 
repulsive,  and  therefore  a  source  of  constant  annoyance 
and  self-reproach.  Again,  the  most  beneficial  occupa- 
tion, pursued  only  for  gain  —  thereby  mistaking  the 
means  for  the  end — is  scarcely  less  wearisome  and  un- 
satisfactory. For  example,  to  preach  the  gospel,  merely 
for  worldly  honour  or  emolument,  would  contribute  little 
to  the  preacher's  happiness,  however  much  it  might  en- 
large his  purse  or  his  reputation. 

In  this  afiair  of  life-work,  two  or  three  things  are  to 
be  looked  after.  1.  The  work  to  be  done,  or  the  pro- 
fession to  be  practised,  must  be  honest,  legal,  useful. 
2.  It  must  be  one  suited  to  our  capacity,  taste  and  quali- 
fications.— The  best,  indeed,  that  we  are  fit  for.  3.  It 
must  be  pursued  with  a  benevolent  purpose — ^^vith  the 
hope  and  design  of  benefiting  others  as  well  as  ourselves. 
These  considerations  do  not  preclude  a  proper  regard  to 
our  own  private  or  domestic  interests.  Every  man  is  in 
duty  bound  to  earn  an  independent  livelihood. — And 
also,  to  support  and  cherish  all  whom  Providence  may 
have  rendered  dependent  upon  his  labours.  Thus  teacli- 
eth  Paul:  "But  if  any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and 
specially  for  those  of  his  own  house,  he  hath  denied  the 
faith,  and  is  worse  than  an  infidel." — 1  Tim.  v.  8. 
Having  fulfilled  the  demands  of  that  charity  which  be- 


572  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

gins  at  home;  having  satisfied  all  the  just  and  re-ason- 
able  claims  which  family  or  station  can  fairly  urge ;  our 
obligations  on  that  score  extend  no  further.  To  devote 
one's  life  to  the  single  object  of  accumulating .  wealth, 
either  for  its  own  sake  or  for  posterity,  is  sanctioned 
neither  by  religion  nor  philosophy.  Such  a  life  would 
hardly  be  pronounced  wise,  useful  or  happy.  Extremes 
in  this  case,  as  in  others,  must  be  avoided.  There  is 
danger  in  both.  "Give  me  neither  poverty  nor  riches: 
feed  me  with  food  convenient  for  me :  Lest  I  be  full,  and 
deny  thee,  and  say,  Who  is  the  Lord  ?  or  lest  I  be  poor, 
and  steal,  and  take  the  name  of  my  God  in  vain."  Such 
was  the  prayer  of  a  very  sensible  man. — Prov.  xxx.  8,  9. 
Now  in  reference  to  all  these  views,  motives  and  ends, 
we  think  Dr.  Troost  was  exceedingly  judicious  and  fortu- 
nate. He  chose  a  profession  which  enabled  him  to  be 
constantly  useful  to  others;  which  highly  gratified  his 
own  peculiar  taste;  and  furnished  him  the  richest  enter- 
tainment—  the  purest  pleasure  —  a  real  feast  of  reason 
without  alloy  or  abatement.  And  though  but  moderately 
rewarded  by  cash  payments  for  his  services,  his  frugal 
habits  and  philosophical  self-command  qualified  him  to 
enjoj^  with  cheerful  gratitude,  and  in  the  kindliest,  most 
hospitable  manner,  the  good  things  which  his  patient 
earnings  could  supply.  He  appeared  always  to  have 
enough;  and  not  to  covet  what  was  beyond  his  reach. 
At  any  rate,  he  did  not  complain,  nor  vex  himself  about 
what  could  not  be  helped.  Upon  the  whole,  I  have 
seldom  known  a  happier  man.  His  daily  vocation  was 
his  delight.     It  created  the  very  atmosphere  which  he 


EDUCATIONAL     DISCOURSES.  O  i  6 

inhaled,  and  which  never  failed  to  exhihirate  and  fortify 
him  for  renewed  exertions.  Was  there  wisdom  in  such 
a  choice?  Might  not  tlie  Doctor,  with  less  labour  and 
self-denial,  have  become  rich  and  respectable  in  a  dif- 
ferent sphere  or  profession?  Undoubtedly,  he  might: 
and  that  too,  without  losing  caste,  either  in  the  land  of 
his  birth  or  adoption.  For  in  both,  fortune-making  has 
over  been  duly  honoured :  and  the  miUionaire  is  every- 
where "the  observed  of  all  observers." 

I  shall  not  stop  to  inquire  what  the  largest  opulence 
might  have  done  for  Jilm,  had  he  possessed  it:  but  to 
most  other  men  or  their  children,  it  has  proved  a  curse 
rather  than  a  blessing.  This  is  so  generally  acknow- 
ledged, as  to  have  become  a  matter  of  every  day's  observa- 
tion, that  l3ut  little  of  manly  excellence  is  ever  expected 
from  the  sons  of  wealthy  parents.  They  want  the  usual 
motive  or  stimulus  to  exertion,  enterprise  and  self-reli- 
ance. If  they  do  not  speedily  become  dissipated,  waste- 
ful, intemperate,  reckless,  profligate,  gambling  loafers 
and  nuisances;  they  are,  at  best,  mere  drones,  idlers, 
exquisites,  and  fashionable  do-iwthings.  In  this  respect, 
our  philosopher  had  the  advantage.  He  lived  to  see  his 
children  better  off,  more  respectably  established,  and 
more  usefully  employed,  than  most  of  their  youthful 
associates,  who  commenced  life  in  affluent  circumstances. 
How-  few  of  the  latter  are  now  their  equals  either  in 
fortune  or  reputation?  To  the  heart  of  paternity,  no- 
thing is  so  grateful  as  the  assurance  that  his  children  are 
virtuous,  dutiful,  industrious,  respected  and  prosperous. 
This  necessary  ingredient  in  the  cup  of  human  felicity 


574  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

was  therefore  not  wanting  in  his  case.  He  lived  and 
died  with  the  soul-cheering  conviction  that  his  posterity 
promised  to  be  all  that  he  could  desire ;  and  that  they 
would  cherish  and  revere  his  memory.  More  than  this, 
neither  wealth,  nor  rank,  nor  station  can  purchase  or 
command.* 

Had  he,  in  his  solitary  rambles  among  the  rocks  and 
groves  of  our  wild  mountains  and  valleys,  chanced  to 
stumble  upon  a  mine  of  gold;  and  could  he  have  appro- 
priated millions  to  his  own  private  coffers;  he  would 
have  been  hailed  and  caressed  as  the  most  fortunate  and 
successful  of  adventurers.  And,  perhaps,  even  Geology 
would  have  been  exalted  in  the  popular  estimation,  and 
voted  a  very  gainful  and  respectable  science  or  profession. 
What  then  might  have  been  the  destiny  and  character 
of  his  children  ?  Let  the  worshippers  of  Mammon  calcu- 
late at  their  leisure. 

But  how  did  the  Doctor  contrive  to  get  through  his 
long  life  of  more  than  threescore  years  and  ten,  in  such 
laborious,  and,  apparently,  thriftless,  as  well  as  repulsive 
drudgery?  Could  his  be  a  life  of  jileasurable  enjoyment? 
Let  us  see.  To  the  curious  and  inquisitive,  the  pursuit 
and  acquisition  of  knowledge,  of  some  kind,  must  be 
always  gratifying.  The  lover  of  history  or  astronomy 
delights  to  ponder  over  the  records  of  by-gone  ages,  or  to 
scan  the  heavens  with  his  telescope :  and  we  do  not  mar- 
vel at  his  folly  or  enthusiasm.     Why  then  should  we 

*  Dr.  Troost  left  oue  son,  Lewis,  and  one  daughter,  maiTied  to 
Albert  G.  Stein.  Lewis  Troost  and  A.  G.  Stein  are  among  the  most 
eminent  civil  engineers  of  the  Southwest. 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  575 

ftincy  that  the  history  of  the  phiiiet  which  we  inhabit, 
as  well  as  its  structure  and  composition,  might  not  be 
equally  interesting  to  another  class  of  curious  inquirers? 
All  real  students  love  their  books  and  their  work.  The 
book  of  nature,  to  the  student  of  nature,  becomes  more 
and  more  fascinating,  just  in  proportion  to  his  ability  to 
understand  it:  and  the  more  thoroughly  it  is  studied, 
the  gre§iter  the  intellectual  satisfaction  in  the  pursuit. 

How  far  science  may  proceed  in  the  discovery  of  the 
true  history  of  our  earth — of  its  various  revolutions, 
changes,  formations  —  of  its  adaptations  to  successive 
genera  of  animals  and  vegetables,  before  it  was  fitted  up 
for  the  habitation  of  man  and  of  its  present  living  occu- 
pants—  cannot  be  even  conjectured.  The  geologist  is 
labouring  in  this  grand  work :  and  he  has  already  made 
good  progress,  and  given  evidence  that  he  is  in  the  right 
way  of  ultimately  arriving  at  most  satisfactory  results. 
He  has  ever  before  him  the  cheering  prospect  of  dis- 
covery :  as  had  Columbus  of  discovering  a  new  world,  or 
of  reaching  the  far  off  Orient  by  a  new  route.  But  even 
should  he  not  succeed  in  the  main  object  of  compassing 
a  complete  or  probable  history  of  our  globe ;  he  has,  at 
least,  the  constant  satisfaction  of  increasing  our  acquaint- 
ance wdth  the  valuable  materials  of  which  it  is  composed ; 
and  thereby  of  adding  largely  to  human  wealth  and 
general  advancement  in  the  useful  arts.  Simply  then, 
as  a  utilitarian,  his  studies  are  not  profitless;  while,  as  a 
liberal  contributor  to  liberal  science,  he  scarcely  has  a 
superior  or  equal  in  the  whole  range  of  philosophical 
investigation. 


576  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

These  are  studies,  moreover,  worthy  not  only  of  the 
loftiest  intellect,  but  of  the  most  devotional  spirit.  Moses, 
Job,  David,  Solomon,  Paul — appear  to  have  taken  great- 
pains  and  great  pleasure  in  the  study  of  the  Almighty's 
wonderful  works.  For,  says  David,  "The  heavens  de- 
clare the  glory  of  God;  and  the  firmament  showeth  his 
handy  work." — Ps.  xix.  1.  And  Paul:  "For  the  invisible 
things  of  him  [God]  from  the  creation  of  the  world  are 
clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  that  are 
made;  even  his  eternal  power  and  Godhead;  so  that 
they  are  without  excuse." — Rom.  i.  20.  Says  Job :  "  Dead 
things  are  formed  from  under  the  waters,  and  the  in- 
habitants thereof."  "  He  stretcheth  out  the  north  over 
the  empty  place,  and  hangeth  the  earth  upon  nothing." 
"  He  bindeth  up  the  waters  in  his  thick  clouds ;  and  the 
cloud  is  not  rent  under  them." — Job,  xxvi.  5-8. 

Solomon  was  not  only  very  wise  and  learned,  but  also 
a  zealous  advocate  of  learning.  "Everj-  prudent  man 
dealeth  with  knowledge:  but  a  fool  layeth  open  his 
folly." — Prov.  xiii.  16.  "Wise  men  lay  up  knowledge: 
but  the  mouth  of  the  foolish  is  near  destruction." — Prov. 
X.  14.  "How  much  better  is  it  to  get  wisdom  than 
gold?" — Prov.  xvi.  16.  That  his  range  of  knowledge  ex- 
tended vastly  beyond  the  mere  ethical  and  literary,  is 
evident  from  the  historical  record.  "And  he  spake  of 
trees,  from  the  cedar-tree  that  is  in  Lebanon,  even  unto 
the  hyssop  that  springeth  out  of  the  wall :  he  spake  also 
of  beasts,  and  of  fowl,  and  of  creeping  things,  and  of 
fishes." — 1  Kings,  iv.  33. 

These  are  good  authorities  at  least,  if  any  were  needed, 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUKSES.  577 

for  such  sublime  and  elevating  studies.  And  no  man 
need  hesitate  to  follow  their  example.  "An  undevout 
astronomer  Is  mad"  —  not  more  so  than  an  undevout 
naturalist — or  than  the  devout  oppugner  of  all  natural 
science.  Even  the  latter,  when  better  informed,  is  con- 
strained to  acknowledge : 

"That  what  he  views  of  beautiful  or  gran.; 
In  nature,  from  the  broad  majestic  oak 
To  the  green  blade  that  twinkles  in  the  sun, 
Prompts  with  remembrance  of  a  present  God." 

The  study  of  nature  does  not  prevent  or  impede  the 
study  of  revelation,  or  of  general  literature.  The  more 
we  learn  of  our  earth's  vicissitudes  and  revolutions,  the 
more  shall  we  be  inclined  to  read  what  man  has  recorded 
of  himself  in  all  past  time,  and  what  God  has  taught  us 
in  his  word  of  both.  Why  should  there  be  jealousy,  sus- 
picion or  hostility  between  the  parties  thus  engaged  in 
the  same  grand  inquiry? — As  if  the  Deity  had  given  us 
two  conflicting  revelations,  on  purpose  to  bewilder  and 
confound  our  intellectual  vision,  whenever  we  attempt 
to  scrutinize  his  works.  Not  thus,  reasoned  the  royal 
Psalmist,  when  he  exclaimed:  "0  Lord,  how  manifold 
are  thy  works !  in  wisdom  hast  thou  made  them  all :  the 
earth  is  full  of  thy  riches.  So  is  this  great  and  wide  sea, 
wherein  are  things  creeping  innumerable,  both  small  and 
great  beasts." — Ps.  civ.  24,  25.  Nor  would  he  have  been 
less  devoutly  inspired,  had  all  or  any  considerable  por- 
tion of  modem  geology  been  patent  to  his  contemplative 
eye.  The  evidences  are  everywhere  present,  of  extinct 
races  or  species  of  animals  and  vegetables,  wrought  up, 

VOL.  I.  37 


578  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

ill  the  progress  of  unknown  ages,  into  the  very  texture 
of  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  the  earth's  surface — ^ 
still  speaking  of  the  wisdom  and  power  of  the  infinite 
Eternal,  as  plainly  as  do  the  gigantic  ruins  of  Thebes 
and  Nineveh  of  the  exertion  of  human  skill  and  energy 
three  thousand  years  ago. 

Even  in  the  limited  sphere  of  operations  allotted  to 
the  encrini,  and  which  engaged  so  much  of  Dr.  T roost's 
attention  towards  the  close  of  life,  we  find  marvels 
enough  to  astonish  and  amaze  the  most  unimaginative 
mind.  Says  Buckland:  "We  may  judge  of  the  degree 
to  which  the  individuals  of  these  species  multiplied 
among  the  first  inhabitants  of  the  sea,  from  the  count- 
less myriads  of  their  j^etrified  remains  which  fill  so  many 
limestone-beds  of  the  transition  formations,  and  compose 
vast  strata  of  entrochal  marble,  extending  over  large 
tracts  of  country  in  Northern  Europe  and  North  America. 
The  substance  of  this  marble  is  often  almost  entirely 
made  up  of  the  petrified  bones  of  encrinites.  Man 
applies  it  to  construct  his  palace  and  adorn  his  sepulchre ; 
but  there  are  few  who  know,  and  fewer  still  who  duly 
appreciate,  the  surprising  fact,  that  much  of  this  marble 
is  composed  of  the  skeletons  of  millions  of  organized 
beings,  once  endowed  with  life,  and  susceptible  of  enjoy- 
ment, which,  after  performing  the  part  that  was  for  a 
while  assigned  to  them  in  living  nature,  have  contributed 
their  remains  towards  the  composition  of  the  mountain 
masses  of  the  earth.'"-'' — D?\  BucTdancVs  Bridgeioater 
Treatise. 

*  The  improved  compound  microscope  has  become  one  of  the  most 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  579 

Assuredly,  studies  like  these  can  never  cease  to  absorb 
and  exalt  the  mind  that  is  capable  of  pursuing  them. 
Dr.  Troost  was  a  scholar,  in  the  good  old  English  sense, 


important  instruments  ever  bestowed  by  art  upon  the  investigator  of 
nature.  "  In  almost  every  department  of  science  are  we  indebted  to 
it  for  the  extension  of  our  knowledge,  and  the  verification  of  previous 
observation."  The  chemist,  the  pharmacist,  the  physiologist,  the 
pathologist,  the  physician,  the  botanist,  the  zoologist,  have,  by  its  as- 
sistance, already  achieved  the  most  w^onderful  discoveries.  In  the 
hands  of  the  geologist,  the  microscope  is  an  instrument  of  magic 
power;  by  means  of  which,  from  the  inspection  only  of  a  bone  or  tooth, 
the  habits  of  the  animal  to  which  it  belonged  are  decided ;  the  colossal 
reptiles  of  the  ancient  earth  are  revived  in  all  the  reality  of  life  and 
being;  and  the  early  formations  of  our  globe  decked  with  their  former 
inhabitants  and  the  vegetation  which  clothed  them  long  ere  man  was 
created  the  lord  of  all  below. 

"While  the  telescope  enables  us  to  see  a  system  in  every  star,  the 
microscope  unfolds  to  us  a  world  in  every  atom.  The  One  instructs 
us  that  this  mighty  globe,  with  the  whole  burden  of  its  people  and  its 
countries,  is  but  a  grain  of  sand  in  the  vast  field  of  immensity ;  the 
other,  that  every  atom  may  harbour  the  tribes  and  families  of  a  busy 
population.  The  one  shows  us  the  insignificance  of  the  world  we  in- 
habit ;  the  other  redeems  it  from  all  its  insignificance,  for  it  tells  us 
that  in  the  leaves  of  every  forest,  in  the  flowers  of  every  garden,  in 
the  waters  of  every  rivulet,  there  are  worlds  teeming  with  life,  and 
numberless  as  are  the  stars  of  the  firmament.  The  one  suggests  to 
us,  that,  above  and  beyond  all  that  is  visible  to  man,  there  may  be 
regions  of  creation  which  sweep  immeasurably  along,  and  carry  the 
impress  of  the  Almighty's  hand  to  the  remotest  scenes  of  the  universe ; 
the  other,  that,  within  and  beneath  all  the  minuteness  which  the 
aided  eye  of  man  is  able  to  explore,  there  may  be  a  world  of  invisible 
beings;  and  that,  could  we  draw  aside  the  mysterious  veil  which 
shrouds  it  from  our  senses,  we  might  behold  a  theatre  of  as  many 
wonders  as  astronomy  can  unfold;  a  universe  within  the  compass  of  a 
point,  so  small  as  to  elude  all  the  powers  of  the  microscope,  but  where 
the  Almighty  Ruler  of  all  things  finds  room  for  the  exercise  of  His 
attributes,  where  He  can  raise  another  mechanism  of  worlds,  and  fill 
and  animate  them  all  with  evidences  of  His  glory !" — Dr.  Chambers. 


580  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

as  well  as  a  savant  and  philosopher.  He  was  well  ac- 
quainted with  classic  and  general  literature.  He  was 
master  of  several  languages,  ancient  and  modern;  par- 
ticularl}-,  of  the  Latin,  German,  French,  English,  and 
his  own  vernacular  of  Holland.  Few  works,  probably, 
on  any  branch  of  natural  science,  were  extant  in  these 
languages,  which  he  had  not  studied  or  examined. 

This  desultory  sketch,  with  many  claims  upon  your 
indulgence,  must  suflBce  for  the  present.  With  docu- 
ments already  promised,  and  with  others  very  confidently 
expected,  I  may  hereafter,  when  more  at  leisure,  recast 
the  rough  materials  at  hand,  and  construct  a  memoir 
more  worthy  of  the  distinguished  subject.  Unless,  in- 
deed, the  task  shall  be  accomplished  by  some  abler  pen. 

And  now,  fellow-citizens,  what  monument,  more  dura- 
ble than  brass  or  marble,  shall  we  erect  to  his  memory? 
Nothing  occurs  to  me  so  appropriate  to  the  occasion  and 
the  man,  and  so  honourable  to  this  community,  as  would 
be  the  purchase  by  the  State  of  his  entire  collection,  both 
of  specimens  and  books,  for  the  use  of  the  public.  If  thus 
purchased,  and  deposited  in  a  spacious  apartment  of  your 
magnificent  capitol  when  finished,  it  would  constitute  the 
greatest  attraction  within  its  walls  to  all  scientific  stran- 
gers and  visitors.  It  would  become  a  school  for  the 
young  and  inquisitive  throughout  the  country.  And 
it  would  perpetuate  the  name  of  the  founder  and  the 
liberality  of  Tennessee.  It  would  be  known,  in  all 
future  time,  as  the  Troost  Cabixet; — purchased  of  his 
heirs,  and  gratuitously  offered  to  the  public  service. 

Should  the  State  decline  the  honour,  then  let  the  city 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  581 

of  Nashville  secure  the  treasure,  and  have  the  whole 
credit  of  the  munificent  deed.  This  opulent  and  grow- 
ing metropolis  should  not  hesitate  a  moment  about  the 
purchase,  if  the  State  refuse.  I  do  not  urge  this,  either 
at  the  instance  of  the  family  of  the  deceased  or  for  their 
especial  benefit.  I  suggest  it,  because  it  would  be  dis- 
graceful to  allow  such  a  cabinet  to  be  removed  from  our 
midst;  and  because  the  few  thousand  dollars  demanded 
for  it,  bear  no  proportion  to  its  intrinsic  or  even  commer- 
cial value. — To  say  nothing  of  the  benefit  which  future 
generations  would  derive  from  its  use  and  study. 

"The  Troost  Cabinet"  would  be  an  invaluable  acquisi- 
tion and  a  glorious  ornament  to  the  classic  halls  of  our 
new  University,  which  is  about  to  arise,  Phoenix-like, 
from  the  ashes  of  the  old,  with  all  the  splendour  which 
architectural  genius  and  artistic  taste  can  impart. — Where 
liberal  science  and  elegant  letters,  where  sound  morals  and 
heroic  virtue  and  stem  patriotism,  shall  be  cultivated  and 
taught  by  high  example  and  commanding  talent.  And 
where  multitudes  of  ingenuous  aspiring  youth  shall  con- 
gregate, as  to  a  pure  fountain,  to  drink  in  wisdom  and 
piety ;  and  to  learn  to  venerate  the  name  of  our  illustri- 
ous Troost,  as  the  great  and  good  benefactor  of  their 
loved  and  honoured  Alma  Mater. 

[It  is  proper  to  add  that  the  author  had  resigned 
the  presidency,  and  that  this  was  the  last  day  and  the 
last  act  of  his  official  connection  with  the  University. 
It  had  already  been  decided  to  erect  new  college  build- 
ings, etc.] 


APPENDIX. 


Note  A. — Dr.  Troost  was  sent  to  Paris,  for  scientific 
pursuits,  by  Louis  Napoleon,  King  of  Holland. — His 
Passport  was  dated  July  1,  1807.  He  had  before  tins 
resided  at  Amsterdam  and  the  Hague,  probably  as  a 
Pharmacist.  He  had  twice  served  in  the  army. — Was 
wounded  in  the  thigh  and  also  in  the  forehead.  During 
his  last  term  of  service,  he  was  an  officer  of  health  of 
the  first  class. 

About  1809,  he  was  commissioned  by  the  King  to 
visit  Java,  as  a  sava7it.  He  sailed  in  an  American 
vessel,  from  a  German  port,  to  avoid  the  English, 
bound  to  the  United  States.  Intending  to  take  pas- 
sage thence  in  an  American  ship  to  the  East.  He  was 
soon  after  captured  by  a  French  privateer  (which  paid 
little  respect  to  our  neutral  flag,)  and  carried  into  the 
port  of  Dunkirk. — Where  he  was  deprived  of  his  papers 
and  detained  as  a  prisoner.  Being  soon  released  (when 
his  case  was  understood,)  he  proceeded  to  Paris. — Where 
he  was  elected  a  corresponding  member  of  the  Museum 
of  Natural  History  of  France.  His  diploma  is  dated 
March  21,  1810.  He,  soon  after,  sailed  for  America. 
His  passport  for  the  voyage  is  dated  Paris,  March  5, 

583 


-58-i  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

1810,  —  authorizing  him  to  sail  in  an  American  ship 
from  Rochelle  to  PhiUidelphia. 

[I  have  seen  the  diploma  and  passports  referred  to 
above.  They  were  among  the  Doctor's  papers,  and 
shown  to  me  by  his  son.] 

Before  this,  he  had  travelled  much  in  France,  Italy, 
Germany,  and  Switzerland;  and  had  collected  a  valuable 
cabinet  of  minerals,  which  he  sold  to  the  King  of  Holland. 
Or  rather,  as  I  suppose,  he  travelled  and  purchased  as 
the  King's  agent  and  at  his  expense. 

Subsequent  European  events  induced  him  to  settle  in 
Philadelphia,  where  he  married  Margaret  Tage  in  1810. 
He  there  established  a  laboratory  for  the  manufacture  of 
drugs  and  various  chemical  preparations. 

[The  facts  or  incidents,  mentioned  above,  were  furnished 
by  his  son.] 

His  second  wife  was,  at  the  time  of  his  marriage  with 
her,  a  widow, "Mrs.  O'Riley,  and  the  mother  of  two  chil- 
dren, a  son  and  daughter.  The  son,  after  graduating  at 
the  University  in  1835,  and  after  serving  several  years 
as  a  civil  engineer  with  every  promise  of  eminence  in  his 

profession,  died  in  ,  highly  esteemed  and  lamented. 

The  daughter  is  the  wife  of  Thomas  Crawford,  Esq., 
of  the  Planters'  Bank  in  Nashville. 

Mrs.  Troost,  the  Doctor's  widow,  is  beloved  and  re- 
spected by  all  her  acquaintance. 

"He  discovered  the  process  of  making  alum  from 
lignite,  for  which  he  obtained  a  patent."     So  says  a  paper 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES.  585 

handed  me  by  liis  son.     But  there  is  probably  some  mis- 
take about  the  matter. 

Alum,  however,  is  still  manufactured  from  the  ore 
found  at  Cape  Sable,  on  the  Magothy  River,  near  An- 
napolis, in  Maryland.  "  This  ore,  which  was  extensively 
worked  during  the  late  war  under  the  superintendence 
of  Dr.  Troost,  consists  of  lignite,  clay,  sulphuret  of  iron, 
and  sand.  It  exists  in  beds  of  from  six  to  ten  feet  in 
thickness,  covered  by  a  stratum  of  sand." — Dispensatory 
of  the  United  States,  Philadelphia,  1839,  p.  70. 

Dr.  Troost's  Cabinet  contained  specimens  as  follows : 

1.  Minerals — in  number — 13,582. 

2.  Fossil  organic  Remains — Paleontology — 2851. 

3.  Geology — Rocks,  etc.  from  granites  to  lavas,  be- 
tween 2000  and  3000. 

4.  Shells — not  numbered. 

5.  Comparative  Anatomy — mostly  disposed  of. 

6.  Zoology.  Nearly  all  his  birds,  fishes,  and  other 
animals  were  sent  to  Europe  a  few  years  ago. 

7.  Botany. — Do. 

8.  Indian  relics  from  ancient  mounds — with  dresses — 
ornaments — war-clubs  and  other  weapons — arrow-heads 
— images,  etc. 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  letter  received  from 
Charles  T.  Jackson,  M.D.,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  respecting 
Dr.  Troost.     It  came  to  hand  September  28,  1850; 


586  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

Boston,  Sept.  19,  1850. 
Dr.  Philip  Lindsley, 

President  of  Nashville  University. 

Sir  : — With  emotions  of  the  deepest  regret,  I  learned 
that  my  honoured  scientific  friend,  Prof.  Gerard  Troost, 
had  been  removed  by  death.  Your  communication  of 
15th  ultimo,  just  received,  bears  testimony  to  his  worth 
as  a  good  man  and  distinguished  savant.  I  would,  with 
your  permission,  add  my  testimony  to  yours,  assuring 
you,  and  the  late  Dr.  Troost's  other  friends,  of  the  high 
appreciation  in  which  his  scientific  services  were  held  by 
American  Geologists  and  Mineralogists,  and  of  my  own 
profound  respect  for  him  as  a  learned  and  excellent  man. 
It  was  my  good  fortune  to  become  somewhat  intimately 
acquainted  with  Dr.  Troost  in  1825,  while  travelling  in 
company  with  him  and  the  late  distinguished  Geologists 
and  Naturalists,  Maclure,  Say,  and  Le  Sueur,  during 
their  scientific  excursions  through  the  counties  of  Sussex, 
N.  J.,  and  Orange,  N.  Y. ;  and  I  was  struck  with  the  un- 
afiected  simplicity  of  his  manners,  and  his  uniform  kind- 
ness and  courtesy,  as  well  as  with  his  prompt  and  scien- 
tific recognition  of  the  minerals,  and  rocks,  which  it  was 
our  object  to  examine.  He  was  an  accurate  and  scientific 
mineralogist,  and  very  correct  crystallographer,  remem- 
bering with  the  most  remarkable  fidelity  the  exact  angles 
of  known  crystals  of  minerals,  so  that  he  readily  dis- 
tinguished rare  and  remarkable  forms. 

During  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  devoted  much  of 
his  attention  to  the  study  of  Fossils;  and  had  mastered 


EDUCATIONAL    DISCOUKSES.  587 

the  latest  discoveries  in  paleontology.  As  State  Geolo- 
gist to  Tennessee,  he  distinguished  himself  as  a  careful 
examiner  of  the  economical  Geology  and  Mineralogy  of 
his  State,  and  directed  with  ability  the  enterprise  of  those 
interested  in  mining. 

The  University  of  Nashville  and  your  State  have  lost, 
in  the  death  of  Dr.  Troost,  a  most  valuable  scientific 
man ;  and  his  friends,  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe, 
deplore  the  loss  of  an  amiable  and  most  worthy  man. 
and  an  eminent  savant. 

With  sentiments  of  high  regard, 
I  have  the  honour  to  be 
Your  obedient  servant, 

(Signed,)  Charles  T.  Jackson,  M.D., 

State  Geologist  to  the  States  of  Maine,  New  Hamp- 
shire, etc.,  and  the  United  States;  Chevalier  de  la 
Legion  d'Honneur,  etc. 

[Copy  of  note  from  the  Trustees,  requesting  the  publi- 
cation of  the  preceding  Discourse,  etc.] 

Nashville,  October  23,  1850. 
Dear  Sir: — The  undersigned  have  been  appointed  a 
committee,  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University 
of  Nashville,  to  obtain  the  original  manuscript,  or  a  copy, 
(as  you  may  choose  to  furnish  either,)  of  your  Discourse 
on  the  life  and  character  of  the  late  Dr.  Troost,  delivered 
at  last  Commencement.  The  object  of  the  Board  is,  to 
have  the  same  printed  and  published;  in  order  that  it 
may  be  preserved  in  a  more  durable  form,  and  be  more 
extensively  circulated.     In  performing  this  dut\-  assigned 


588  EDUCATIONAL    DISCOURSES. 

to  the  committee,  they  beg  leave  to  express  their  opinion 
of  the  high  merit  of  the  Discourse,  as  a  literar}^  composi- 
tion, and  for  the  full,  and  just,  and  discriminating  views 
which  it  presents  of  him  who  was  the  subject  of  it; 
which  make  it  eminently  worthy  of  a  place  in  the 
archives  of  the  University.  The  committee,  therefore, 
respectfully  request  of  you  a  compliance  with  the  wishes 
of  the  Board,  as  herein  communicated. 
Very  respectfully, 

rTnos.  Washington, 
Signed,  <  Sam'l  D.  Morgan, 

I  John  Trimble, 

Committee. 
To  Dr.  Lindsley. 


end  of  first  vol. 


■^ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

Return  to  desk  from  which  borrowed. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


ICLF  (N) 


APR    7«^jtj3L.D  MAR0170-3PM 


REC'D  L^ 

SEP  2  3 '65 -U  AM 


DAVIS 
INTERLIBRAIIY  LOAN 


NOV  IE  ; 


Mii,'YQ 


971 


MJG6    1974  5  <i 

gC'D  CiRC  DfPr       „,,  4      .,,  , 


LD  21-100w-9,'47(A5702sl6)476 


